The Hatake Kakashi Home for Orphaned Children
by zxrycyan
Summary: With a resigned sort of exasperation, Kakashi gives up all thoughts on leading a free, uncomplicated life immersing himself in the lovely world of Icha Icha, and figures that he might as well have set up an orphanage in his tiny two-room apartment.
1. First Meetings

**A/N: **Here's my first Naruto fic! It's going to be largely un-planned-out fluff and humour, involving a little angst here and there... Honestly, I just didn't know how else to start off. I'll delve into more mindless, illogical humour in the upcoming chapters, possibly crack. Don't expect anything seriously angsty like _Beyond the Edge, _this is gonna be way less dignified and more like _free roam, my fingers! _so yeah, I've got no plot except vague-ish ideas. Gotta embrace the fluff yo~ Also, there'll be some OOC-ness since it's about seven years before canon starts so their personalities were bound to change a bit, and of course, canon derailment.

Consider yourselves warned. (*cackles*)

**Dedication** to _zxrysky -_ HAPPY BIRTHDAY IMOUTO-CHAN! Thanks for being an amazing sister and also for dumping a pile of amazing Naruto fics on me and dragging me into the fandom. It's totally going to help my grades, yeah. /fist pump/ Anyway, I'll post the next chapter soon since I know you've already read this one heheh but bear with me won't cha?

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto!

Hope y'all enjoy! :)

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

_First Meetings_

Kakashi first meets his sensei's son as barely more than a war-hardened and grief-stricken teenager with the unshaking belief that less attachment means less pain. His ANBU mask tucked safely in his vest, he finds that his legs have somehow brought him to stand before the Memorial yet again, and he manages a bitter laugh at the irony of it. He'd been searching for some place capable of driving the images of bloodshed and death away after that latest mission, because the use of his Sharingan still brings back too many memories, too much pain.

He sits down and leans carefully against the cool stone, resigned to another night of sleeplessness. Vaguely, he remembers that he has to report in to the Hokage about the mission (_a success, as always, but it never really feels like _success_ anymore_) but figures that a day late won't matter, especially since the Sandaime already knows that if there had been a problem, he would have reported in immediately.

Tilting his head back, Kakashi stares up into the deep purple sky, and tries to think of stars and clouds and cooling night breezes, and nothing of the blood that can never quite be washed off his hands or the uncountable lives he has taken before – and even after – he had realized what _killing _truly meant. And it is somewhere between Heaven and Hell that his mind lingers momentarily on Earth, and he hears the unmistakable thudding of shuriken in wood.

Instantly, he is alert and on his feet with a kunai balanced on his fingertips, poised for release any moment. Even as he does so, he is already racing towards the direction of the sounds, leaping into a tree to scout out the situation first. His heart pounds in his ears and adrenaline runs through his system, anticipating a fight, an attack, _anything-_

-except for a little boy huffing and puffing in exertion, throwing shuriken _way _off his target.

Kakashi very nearly falls off the tree in sheer surprise, and that's quite the accomplishment, considering that there's not much that can make the ANBU Captain jump anymore. Hanging upside down with only chakra sticking the bottom of his shoes to the thin branch (he prays it wouldn't break), he can't help but think, _God, I over-reacted._

…That is a major understatement.

Either way, the child is as welcome a distraction as any, and he swings back onto the tree to observe what the kid is up to. It soon becomes clear that he's doing nothing but training, and strange as it is to do so at midnight, Kakashi can't be bothered to question it. He absent-mindedly counts the number of misses and hits, notes that the boy has a completely wrong stance, and observes that his shuriken are so blunt that more than half of them simply bounce off the wood harmlessly.

The kid doesn't yet look Academy-aged, but surely his parents would have taught him better?

_An orphan, _his mind suddenly provides, almost without conscious thought. He finds that the word still rouses many emotions better left dormant, and he desperately pushes them down again, forcing himself to focus instead on the slightly fraying hems of the boy's jumpsuit, coloured in a most visually-assaulting _orange_. Being an orphan certainly would explain a lot.

He takes a closer look at the kid's features, and cannot help the sharp intake of breath or the slight widening of his eyes, even as conflicting thoughts crash over him like the unrelenting waves of a tsunami – _getaway _and _helphim _and _I'msorry I'msosorry _at the same time.

The resemblance is strikingly, _undeniably, _clear in the boy's blond hair (the _exact _same shade of golden-silver under the moonlight that he'd come to recognize as his sensei's), and his brilliant, _brilliant _blue eyes. He can't possibly be anyone other than Minato's child.

_Goddamn, _Kakashi thinks, because doesn't he have enough reminders of his failures already, without a _living _one this time? But even as he watches, the boy is slowly falling forward, body slanting to the ground and his grip loosening on the two shuriken in his hands, and before he knows it, before the smoke even dissipates from his shunshin, the kid is already in his arms and Kakashi realizes that the blond is so much smaller than he should be for his five years of age.

That thought is quickly pushed aside when he looks down at the boy's face, because this close, he is a _spitting image _of his father, and Kakashi cannot think or breathe at all. Close up, he can even see the kid's mother in the shape of his eyes, can _sense _her presence in the fiery feel of his chakra.

He can't possibly abandon this boy, not when he'd already fallen so short of his sensei's expectations, but _what can he do_? He's bad luck, he knows that – anyone who has ever gotten attached to him have met early ends, and there's no way he will be able to live with himself if he manages to bring this fate down on an innocent child, however unintentionally, much less this kid sleeping peacefully in his hold.

Come to think of it, he has forgotten just how long he'd gone without _peace_. There is no peace in his ANBU missions, only tension and blood and adrenaline, and there is no peace in his Konoha, because all he sees are endless reminders of his foolishness and his failures_. _Somehow or other, it occurs to him that this little Namikaze seems like a bundle of that exact emotion, and by contrast, he is startlingly aware of how revoltingly filthy he is. He feels the sudden urge to drop the blond – what is he _thinking_, touching a child with bloodstained hands like his?

However, before he registers it or even decides on a destination, his legs are already flying and he is heading towards the village hospital. He knows the kid isn't in mortal danger, knows it as a tangible thought in his mind – he'd only fainted out of exhaustion, not chakra depletion – but Kakashi still cannot stop the anxiety or the near-panic running through his veins. He doesn't like closed eyelids or limp forms like this, even with the steady rising and falling in time to the kid's breaths, and sometimes he thinks that he cannot stand _peace_ at all.

Because Minato and Kushina had looked so tranquil in death, _smiled _even while passing on, but the gray-haired teenager they'd left behind simply could not fathom how_, _couldn't understand _why. _It had seemed so wrong: his grief in the face of his sensei's quiet contentment, his silent, desperate prayers for him to return when he'd seemed so ready to move on.

He had hated being so selfish, detested himself for it, but what else could he have done, when he'd lost every single one of his precious people and he _had _no one other than himself to consider anymore?

Abruptly, the kid stirs in his arms from the slightly rough travel and mumbles something about ramen and Hokage and all sorts of inane things, jarring him from his thoughts. For a heart-pounding second, Kakashi holds his breath, worrying that the child will wake and react badly to the situation that he's somehow landed in.

Who knows – he might start screaming or shouting for help, and that had to be one of the most god-awful things that could happen to the single ninja most famous for his aversion to attention and anything even remotely related to social interactions. Besides, it is doubtful that anyone would want to be found looking suspiciously like he had just attempted kidnap.

Just when the blond looks deceptively like he'd fallen back into a deep sleep, he cracks open one sleepy eyelid and blinks blearily up at the rather intimidating (to his eyes) ANBU. The man stares back down at him with an unreadable expression before coming to a halt, carefully balanced on a rooftop not far from the village hospital.

With the moonlight shining and the mysterious ninja's silver hair glowing like a halo above his head, it occurs to the boy's young, sleep-addled mind that he rather resembles a, "Tenshi?"

Kakashi, in turn, half-chokes and half-scoffs at the mere suggestion, albeit the thoughts that float into his mind are bitter. An angel has to be the last thing he can possibly be. He is, on the other hand, reasonably certain that there is a special place reserved in Hell just _waiting _for his eventual arrival. So he shakes his head no, and wonders at the slight twist of guilt in his gut for the little (adorable) frown-pout hybrid the kid now wears.

"Who are you, ANBU-san?" The question is refreshing in its _honesty, _because it's been far too long since Kakashi has heard anything so void of suspicion or awe or anything other than innocent curiosity. But even though he is known as a great many things – the White Fang's son, a genius, Sharingan no Kakashi, Copy-nin Kakashi, and now ANBU Captain Hound – none of his titles seem particularly meaningful in the face of that expectant expression, and he doesn't know what exactly to _say_.

In the end, he settles simply on, "Hatake Kakashi."

If there is any recognition, none of it shows in bright cerulean eyes. There is only the genuine satisfaction of finally having a name to pin to a face, so Kakashi plunges on, "What's your name, kid?"

He doesn't miss the hesitation or sudden uncertainty that flashes across childish features as the kid whispers 'Uzumaki N-naruto', and it drags a long-faded memory to the surface. He recalls it indistinctly from one of the rare times he'd actually bothered to linger in ANBU Headquarters beyond receiving missions or giving reports, and he'd heard the name uttered between _troublemaker _and _prankster, demon _and _monster._

It hadn't mattered much to him then, but now that the rumored "monster" is in his arms as nothing more than a _little boy_ with too-wide eyes and too-blond hair, an irrepressible rage bubbles up in him. He knows Minato would never have wanted any misfortune to befall his and Kushina's child, and if he were still alive, he'd undoubtedly be showering Naruto with love and affection – _too much _of it, probably – but what has the kid become now? A _scapegoat_ of all things, scorned and abused all his short life when the Yondaime couldn't have wanted him to be treated as anything short of a hero.

It is only the kid struggling to sit up, pushing and pulling on his flak jacket that momentarily keeps at bay the wave of uncharacteristically intense emotions and brings him back to Earth. Strangely enough, he finds himself in the midst of trying to keep a flailing five-year-old from tumbling out of his arms.

"What are you doing?" In his confusion and panic, he must have sounded harsher than he'd meant to, for Naruto suddenly freezes, and the twisting feeling in his gut makes him feel worse than ever.

The boy seems to be waiting for something, a rebuke or a criticizing remark, and whines defensively, "Gotta go train! Gonna become Hokage one day!"

"You just fainted out of exhaustion," Kakashi points out helpfully. _An awfully big dream for such a tiny kid_, he thinks, but wisely chooses not to say it out loud. No doubt Naruto already has more than his fair share of people putting his dreams down. Besides, becoming Hokage is quite the common ambition for kids that age.

Hey, aim high, dream big, right?

"I'm fine now!" Naruto insists, and wriggles in his arms. The jōnin barely manages not to sigh, and wonders how it is that a five-year-old can crumble his stoic mask better than any enemy-nin has managed to.

He ignores the pounding headache coming on, and soldiers on, "I'm bringing you to the hospital." He makes sure to use his ANBU Captain voice that makes all of his team members gulp and obey immediately, but finds that he doesn't have the energy to even be surprised when the blond completely disregards his _I'mgoingtotearyoulimbfromlimbifyoudon'tlisten _tone and squirms all the more harder.

Really, he's barely managing not to drop the little brat as he leaps from one roof onto another, and knowing his luck, most likely onto some poor unsuspecting bastard's head.

Meanwhile, Naruto is chanting '_h__ate hospitals!_' in a remarkably shrill voice that only stubborn five-year-olds can achieve. Each chant makes Kakashi's ears ring and his heart pound, and he is certain that he's growing increasingly paranoid. Surely that shadow over there wouldn't be an ANBU squad come to apprehend him for attempting to kidnap the village's jinchuuriki? And that couldn't be- _ohdearLorditmoved!_

Wait, that's just a bird.

This time, Kakashi _does _sigh, partly out of relief and partly out of exasperation. God, his reputation will nosedive and _splatter_ at rock bottom if anyone is present to witness his composure falling apart in the hands of a kid. He sighs again, and gives up. There is a _reason _he can't deal with brats, and besides, he himself isn't too fond of the sterile structure that nonetheless holds a tinge of the coppery smell of blood and death, nauseatingly mixed in with the fragrance of fresh flowers.

Warily, he stops on the edge of a building just two leaps away from the hospital, and asks, "Fine. Where do you want to go, then?"

"…Train?" (_In reality it sounds something more like 'twain' and Kakashi curses his luck for landing him with such a _cute _kid._) Big azure orbs bore into his, gleaming with boyish hope and just the slightest dash of pleading, and Kakashi's resolve crumbles like pie crust in the overzealous hands of a toddler. He runs a hand through his already ruffled hair, and idly wonders whether anyone will notice if he grows a few gray hairs from this whole ordeal. He has to admit, puppy dog eyes truly are formidable weapons.

This is how the infamous copy-nin finds himself back in training ground three at approximately one in the morning, half-dragged along by an all-too-cheerful and overly-orange brat. Without realizing it, the images of bloodshed and death have already become the furthest thing from his mind, and there just _might_ be a fond tilt to his lips as he corrects Naruto's stance and demonstrates once with his own shuriken, forming a henohenomoheji.

Ah, but there's always the kid's slack-jawed look of awe, and well, it's never been said that Kakashi's ego doesn't enjoy a bit of wide-eyed reverence.


	2. Concern

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

_Concern_

Kakashi first expresses concern about his mental stability to a slab of cold stone, not after his mind finally snapped or after slaughtering scores of enemies, but on the day after his first run-in with the horror that is a five-year-old Naruto-chan. Images of a happy and migraine-causing kid run incessantly through his mind, steadily driving him to the brink of insanity.

"Obito, I think that I am going crazy," he announces very seriously, expression solemn and posture rigid.

…He feels rather like he's just professed to being gay or something.

No_, _where has his mind _gone? _He quickly shakes his head to clear it of all thoughts on his questionable (_wait what?_) sexual orientation and settles himself on the ground.

He closes his eyes, and images of his latest victims (_looks of shock etched forever onto their faces as blood spills through his fingers_) rise unbidden behind his eyelids, before a rapidly approaching chakra signature prickles at his senses. He cracks open an eye lazily, and in bounds the sanity-butchering terror.

"Ne, ne, are we gonna train again today or what?" Naruto hops around in circles in front of the jōnin, and Kakashi freezes. Since when have they settled into a routine, as the kid seemed to suggest? _It won't do him any good to get attached to you, _a small, broken voice at the back of his mind whispers.

Naruto takes his silence as refusal, and pouts. "Please?"

Kakashi shakes his head no.

"Just today?"

Kakashi knows that's not going to happen.

"Pwetty pwease?"

He's already opened his mouth for a rebuttal (but _God _that kid's _cute_), when Naruto tacks on a shy, half-hesitant, "…Kakashi-sensei?"

Oh look! His resolution is flying out the window, isn't it?

Already exasperated after barely three minutes with the boy, he levers himself off the ground and dusts himself off, thankful for his mask as he tries and fails to prevent a tiny smile from lifting up the corners of his lips. What _is _that warm feeling bubbling in his chest, anyway? He's being utterly ridiculous! The brat just called him _sensei, _nothing else!

(But for the first time in a long time the word brings back memories of ruffled hair, dirty looks concealing reluctant half-smiles, and training together, eating together_, _having fun _together, _not of life seeping away and red surrounding him and _god damn it don't leave please don't leave me _alone-)

Slowly, as though speaking to a child more than a bit slow, he allows, "I need to leave in two hours." _But I'll spend those two hours with you, _he doesn't say.

He winces as Naruto cheers – loudly, _in his ears _– and spins around in what can only be a victory dance, though Kakashi thinks it'd be more accurate to call it a headless chicken's celebratory ritual.

"Thank you!" the blond exclaims with a huge grin, practically exuding _sparkles _of Pure Excitement_. _The wayward thought that the kid is going to start rivaling Gai the Teeth-Shine Master soon makes Kakashi's whole body shudder.

"Obito," he mutters under his breath, "Please kill me right now. Strike me down with lightning or something."

He waits half-hopefully, and sighs when nothing happens. _Figures._

The jōnin is almost startled when he finds a pair of wide blue eyes blinking curiously up at him. Naruto tilts his head to the side and questions, "Who's Obito?"

The kid heard? Kakashi turns away and casually starts whistling, mind whirring as he searched for some sort of explanation to give.

"A cute little grandma I met one day. I helped her cross the road and carry bags of groceries home."

Kakashi pauses. His brain falls apart.

"Really?!"

No going back now, he supposes. Kakashi nods blankly. When he realizes that Naruto isn't going to do much more than shine expectantly up at him, no doubt painting some too-righteous picture of him in his childish mind, he twitches and says stiffly, "Proper shinobi always help people out whenever they can."

He's pretty certain he's never heard _that _one before, but it's not like it's going to matter in the long run, right? A lot of people spout bull to children, anyway.

_Right,_ he manages to convince himself even as the kid nodded, an absolutely serious expression on his face.

The ANBU almost wants to warn Naruto not to take _anything _he says or does seriously, because that would mean that the kid is looking up to _him_, and Kakashi is _not a good role model, dammit._

But he doesn't, because the brat is looking too happy and optimistic for him to ruin his fantasies, so he crinkles his visible eye into a crescent and asks, "Want to train, kid?"

Naruto brightens and leaps up eagerly, and Kakashi can only hope with all his heart that indulging in his _own_ fantasies once in a while wouldn't hurt.

Because for all the pretenses that he puts up, he _wants _to be with the little ball of sunshine, to feel that bubbly feeling in his chest that makes it so hard to breathe past the joy and the warmth and the ever so faint ringing of _pack._

* * *

><p>"No," Kakashi corrects, "Your grip is supposed to be like this." He proceeds to show the kid how exactly to hold the shuriken without risking mutilated fingers, limbs, or any such disadvantageous happenings on the battlefield.<p>

"Like this?"

"No," he has to take special care not to let his impatience show in his voice. He's always expected the best from himself, and he finds it rather harder than expected not to automatically expect that of everyone else as well. "It's like this."

He reaches for Naruto's arm to shift it into position, but is suddenly distracted by a muffled sniff. Startled, he looks up to see the kid- _crying? Is he crying?!_

Very discreetly, the boy reaches up to rub his eyes, biting his bottom lip to stop it from wobbling. Naruto's never been so _frustrated _before. He's only ever alone, but now the kind ninja is teaching him, actually taking time out for _him, _but he still can't get anything right! He's wasting the jōnin's time!

Surreptitiously, he sniffles again and prays silently that Kakashi-sensei hasn't heard him. He doesn't know how long the ANBU will stick around - doesn't even know _why _he's willing to spend time with him - but he's going to do his level best not to give the man any reason to leave earlier than he'd planned. So he's gotta listen to Kakashi-sensei, right? He's gotta listen and be a good kid, but he just _can't get it right!_

He shifts his fingers on the shuriken again and asks, "L-like this?"

When he doesn't receive an answer, he automatically whips his head around to the ANBU and is taken aback to see Kakashi's widened eye, because the man is never surprised, never shocked, never anything other than the very occasional crinkled eye (Naruto counts every single one of those as a private victory).

Meanwhile, Kakashi is going through a panic attack the likes of which he's never had before on the field. His thoughts are a jumbled mess, similar to bees buzzing around on a very confused rampage.

_What do I do?! _is his very first thought, and quite appropriate it is. _Minato-sensei, please give me strength, _is his relatively unexpected second. How had Minato-sensei dealt with Kakashi as a kid, anyway? Oh right, he wasn't very inclined to Public Displays of Emotions.

Very quickly, he brainstorms all the things that kids like. _Kids kids kids kids kids what do kids like- _his very first thought is _orange goggles, _but he thinks that if Naruto is adorned with anymore orange he might very well go blind, so he continues his frantic mindsearch.

_Candy! _he is struck by the sudden epiphany. _Kids like candy, ...right? _

He doesn't allow himself anymore time to think, and pats the boy very quickly on the shoulder, "Stay here."

Kakashi then shunshins away, appearing in front of a startled stall-owner who had to stifle a scream. He snatches up a variety of candy, stuffs a bill into the bewildered matron's hand, and disappears again, leaving the poor woman yelling 'change, shinobi-san, your change!' after him.

The jōnin materialises back in the training ground barely seconds later, dropping his armful of Very Unhealthy Sweets onto the earth with a mildly alarming 'thud'.

When the boy's only reaction is to blink at the small mountain as though in a stupor, Kakashi begins to panic. "Do you like candy, kid?" he asks, and almost starts flapping his arms or floundering about in his fluster.

"I like...," Naruto says, staring uncomprehendingly at the candy supposedly meant for _him. Does he like candy? _His brain is too frozen to think. He finally concludes, quite irrelevantly, "...ramen."

Of course, Kakashi pretty much has a scaled-down nervous breakdown right then, because _the kid doesn't like candy he's still upset- _

_-what kind of kid likes _ramen _anyway?! _

Either way, his options are obvious and currently highly limited. As such, Kakashi activates shunshin again, this time _whirling_ through the first convenience shop he finds, grabbing a cup of instant ramen and filling it to the brim with hot water. He barely notices how it scalds his fingers, just pulls out and dumps a handful of ryou in the cashier's palm (she gapes unabashedly at the money because _bloody hell _that's enough to buy half the _shelf _of ramen!).

Miraculously, Kakashi manages not to spill a single drop of broth as he travels at super-speed back to where he'd left Naruto. He thrusts the cup into the kid's hands awkwardly, not really knowing what else to do or say, then slaps his forehead in realisation: he'd forgotten to take a pair of chopsticks with him! Why have all his years of training and experience in strategizing and sharp thinking abandoned him at such a crucial time?

When he returns to the training ground again, chopsticks in hand (they look unnaturally pointy and lethal when he holds them like this, but that's another point altogether), he finds vivid blue orbs drilling straight into his dark-coloured ones. Naruto is clutching his ramen in a strangely protective manner, and Kakashi sees some mix of disbelief and delight in his eyes, masked by a layer of pure confusion.

"Is this…" the kid's voice is small and so, so heartbreakingly hopeful, and it makes Kakashi curse himself for ever ignoring the existence of his sensei's child before, "...for me?"

"Of course," he answers immediately, his brain-to-mouth filter absent for one of the first times in his life, but really, hadn't he made it obvious enough?

"Of course, silly, who else?"

A grin breaks across Naruto's face, wide and brilliant and heartwarmingly innocent, like the sun shining through after a storm that seemed like it'd never go away, like fire that burns in the darkest hours but never _rages, _and Kakashi's vision grows a little blurry and his throat just a little too thick.

The kid practically _inhales _his ramen, and if the wooden chopsticks splinter in the silver-haired jōnin's hand because _that _goes beyond enthusiastic and into the realms of _humanly impossible, _none of them really notice.

And if something saline, round and crystalline drips down silently and seeps into the soil beneath their feet, well, none of them mention it.

Naruto swipes at his eyes with the back of his hand, and declares around a mouthful of ramen, "Candy is my new favourite food."

It takes a moment, during which the boy stares intensely at the bottom of his empty ramen cup and fights down a furious blush, before the statement sinks in. Kakashi blinks in surprise, then lets a genuine smile wash over his features and tilts Naruto's face so that he can look him straight in the eye and show that he _means _it.

He drops a gentle hand on the kid's head, ruffles his hair, and promises with an eye-smile, "I'll buy you as much as you'd like."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Thanks a lot to all favouriters, followers, and reviewers! You guys rock! So, uh, this isn't going to be updated so regularly, but I'll try to aim for weekly/fortnightly updates? Meh, fluff and humour's easier to write than angst, but some angst riddled its way in anyway. :P But in any case, thank you for your support! And a special shoutout to my little sis, because the only reason this was updated so soon is for your birthday (even if it's a little late) HAHAHA Hope you like it~


	3. Child's Play

**Warning: **angst ahead~ (Looks like I can't stray too far from angst after all... eheheh...)

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

_Child's Play_

The first time that Naruto stops wondering why he's always treated badly and goes out to do something about it instead, he is four and confused, tired and scorned.

He's never known anything more than dirty looks and nasty remarks, kids his age being lead away by their hands and everyone giving him a wide, wide berth on the streets.

His first idea is to play a game. So he does.

It's incredibly simple, something even a four-year-old can come up with. In fact, something four-year-olds _excel _at. He calls it, quite importantly, the Imagination Game.

As the name suggests, he imagines a huge, transparent bubble around himself, somewhat like a glass dome but thinner, way thinner. It is invisible but _real,_ even if deep down in his heart he doesn't believe it. He convinces himself that the bubble is the reason why no one can get close to him, and if anyone turns away, he narrows his eyes and shoots out lightning-quick mind rays, and cheers in his head because _attack successful!_

(And if someday, someone is willing to approach him, he will imagine that he's poked a little hole in his impenetrable bubble and _allowed _the person in. Because hey, who's boss? He's boss.)

Slowly, slowly, the invisible bubble grows stronger and stronger, tough as tempered steel but as flexible as a child's imagination – that is, very. On some days it's just a veil on his skin, shimmering slightly under the sun, and on others, it stretches for meters on either side of him. It depends on how close others are _forced_ to get to him, actually, but he doesn't think that. In his little world contained within paper-thin walls, he controls _everything._

But after the initial excitement wears off and the looks aren't quite so dulled on the reflective sheen of his bubble anymore, Naruto puts his chin on his palms and _thinks. _Soon, he comes up with a second game and again, incredibly simple it is. It's something all four-year-olds love and, quite pleased with himself, he names it Hero.

It is, in fact, merely the mundane game of role-playing. But no, to him, as to all four-year-olds, games are worlds and games are _life. _(His life is just a string of games, after all: sometimes he's the toy and sometimes he's the player, sometimes he's both and really, what does it matter?)

So, as all such games begin, he invents a personality and makes him strong and amazing and cheerful, all the things he's not. Then he fits himself into the mould, slips easily into the skin he's created with no one the wiser, and walks on the streets with his chin up and chest puffed. He smiles at all the passers-by and pretends not to notice the way they flinch away from his unnaturally sharp canines, but even if he can't hear what the constant murmurs trailing after him are, he can guess.

He just reinforces the walls of his bubble and whistles as he skips along, and focuses his attention on building more layers to _Hero_. He adds bits and pieces on random whims and moments of inspiration: in goes some mischievousness one day, and he remembers to make _Hero _kind as well on another, and wonders about giving him different sides as he lays on a roof on a lazy afternoon, watching the clouds float idly by. Maybe he should have a different personality during a fight? Mm, that made sense, _Hero _had to be cool and badass sometimes too. It wouldn't do for a boy to seem too meek.

Naruto nods sagely to himself, and whiles away many lonely days meticulously constructing his world. Bit by bit, he fills in all the little holes in _Hero _and makes it a perfect mask, until it becomes his skin, his flesh and his blood, and knits its way into his very mind.

(_Will pretenders still be liars if they become what they pretend to be?_)

He is _Hero_ now, strong and brave and cheerful and kind, with a mischievous streak that possibly involves turning Konoha upside down with a variety of pranks. He leaps up out of bed every morning at the crack of dawn and flashes a brilliant grin, challenging his life to see who can wreak the most havoc first.

When the villagers look at him with disgust and loathing for his latest masterpiece of mischief, his mind automatically morphs the gazes into awed, reverent ones, and does not hear the whispers and curses that follow. Occasionally, he frightens himself with how real his artificial world has become, but mostly he truly _forgets _to differentiate between reality and what-was-once-a-game.

Because, you see, Naruto has never been skilled in genjutsu, but he has always been _devastatingly_ good at illusions.

* * *

><p>Naruto hates the hellhole of an orphanage he stays at, with its peeling paint and drab, dully-colored walls, its dingy, twenty-to-one bunk rooms which are so crammed with double-decker beds that all the personal space you ever have is your rectangular bunk bed and underneath-the-mattress (<em>everyone <em>hides things there).

But among everything contained within the filthy walls of the place, he hates the people here the most – the social workers who 'help' them to become 'respectable members of the society', the staff who are more often sharp words and narrowed eyes than not, and naturally, the older kids who seem to find it genuinely amusing to bully the younger children like him.

In that, at least, he is not alone, but that thought doesn't comfort him as much as he wishes it could. Because even though sometimes he defends _other _kids' belongings as well as his own, every time that he smiles and waits for a _thank you _he receives nothing, and his bruises and scratches throb on his skin. He used to be a pushover and now he's not, but he's still weak and small and a full head shorter than his perpetrators, outnumbered at least three to one.

Eventually, he's taken to simply hiding even his spare pieces of clothing in a little crevice on the roof, though to be fair, that's actually everything he owns. Now he avoids the dull concrete building and everyone in it like the plague, leaving at first light (after sneaking some food from the kitchen, of course) and returning only for dinner, and sometimes not even for that.

He's lucky that he gets an allowance directly from jiji, since he's reasonably certain the other kids get money from the orphanage fund and he's never received any. The allowance is very meagre, though, and Naruto thinks that the man's never realized that he doesn't get any money other than what he gives him. But he takes whatever he gets, and stuffs every single cent into Gama-chan, saving it for – for he doesn't know what, actually. He never really does.

As he winds along the roads of Konoha, the fact that it is his birthday today occurs to him and he considers emptying his wallet a little, treating himself to something more expensive – maybe sushi? But then he realizes the shop-owners never like him around, and somehow he doesn't feel up to even Ichiraku ramen tonight (_because he doesn't have anyone to celebrate with and staying out alone will just make that loneliness more profound). _

So he pastes a grin onto his face and wanders back to the orphanage, taking a few more detours than he normally does and not reaching the drab place until past sundown. He enters and finds dinner already well underway, and slinks along the wall to his place right at the end of the table, with the smallest helping and no meat or thin slice of cheesecake like all the other kids get. He picks up his spoon and tries to think good thoughts like all good boys should. _It takes a lot of effort to grow rice, _he tells himself, and _I'm lucky I get food in my belly._

He's not an ungrateful brat, really, but he cannot help a strange emptiness from flooding his veins, because the only thing that echoes in his mind is that it's his_ birthday _and he'd only been hoping to get_ dessert_. He tries to laugh, but all that comes out is a choked gurgle that he's not entirely sure is all wrong.

Hot tears trail down the curvature of his cheeks, frozen in a plastic smile, and the shimmering liquid drips onto his trembling fingers. He doesn't notice the dull roaring in his ears or the way his vision blurs, or even the startled 'o-oi!' from the kid sitting nearest to him.

He grips his cracked ceramic bowl so tightly his fingertips turn a mesmerizing white, and tries very_, _very hard not to realize that _life's not fair_.

* * *

><p>The first time Naruto meets the silver-haired ANBU, Kakashi completely <em>shatters <em>his world.

Once he is awake and alert enough to register his surroundings, the first thought that occurs to him and very nearly sends him _reeling _is that the man (_teenager?_) is inside his bubble. He's _right inside_ his bubble and Naruto hasn't _allowed_ him in (even if he's leaning towards the explanation that he's simply done that in his sleep).

It's strange, very strange; he's forgotten what it is like to have someone talk to him, look _at _him, not through or around as though he's there only for the purpose of pretending he doesn't exist. In some part of his mind, he also marvels at the amazing sensation of finally having someone else in his little bubble, because he doesn't have to block the world out anymore, he doesn't have to keep a commentary of the most nonsensical things desperately running in his mind just to not listen and not notice all the things that he nonetheless hears and sees anyway.

He looks into a single dark-colored eye very seriously, amazed at how distinct the ANBU's features are awash in the pale moonlight and how _clear _his voice is on ears that have grown too accustomed to not-listening. The ninja looks right back at him very coolly and calmly, and he is struck by the fact that he's never experienced anything so _precious, _so unlike the usual searing gazes of the people, charged with rage and hatred and roaring fire.

It's a bit like jiji's eyes, but more guarded, more focused. The Hokage is kind and always has a smile to spare for Naruto, but he's also always distracted and it is clear that he has bigger things to handle and more important people to see to than a little brat like him.

He loves jiji, really, and he loves bothering him, but it's just not the _same. _

Sometimes, he feels less like a child and more like just another responsibility of the old man's, one more burden on his shoulders, hunching him over his great big desk and tall scary stacks of paperwork. He tries to understand_, _because he knows that adults are much, much busier than him and jiji is a super-adult, older and apparently extremely important as well. But _sometimes _he _can't_, and wonders why the man won't spend a little more time with him – he's always promising Ichiraku ramen but he turns up about as often as he doesn't, leaving Naruto's smile just a bit sadder each time.

Then Kakashi agrees to train with him and in his mind the man suddenly takes on the title of _sensei, _and he feels like his heart can burst. It's even better than when he'd first invented his little games and his veins were buzzing with a mix of pride and excitement and relief, and he tries but cannot restrain the stupid grin that crawls onto his face and stays there till his cheeks are hurting and he drops, once more, of exhaustion.

(But it feels _good, _the dull throbbing ache in his muscles and the chilly edge of wind on his skin, because it's only physical pain and he doesn't know much but he knows _enough _to realize that it's much, much better to strain his body than his mind.)

When he wakes up again it is in an apartment that he doesn't recognize, dim and small by normal standards with grime on the window and dust motes swirling in the air, but Naruto is in _awe _because the bedroll is soft and even if the pillow smells musty with disuse it is feathery and amazing when all he usually has as a headrest is his jacket. He's fundamentally still a five-year-old, so he doesn't question where he is (though logically there _is _only one place he can be), just revels in the comfortable quietness and sinks back into the clutches of sleep.

The second time he awakens, the sun is already shining hot and bright. Reluctantly, Naruto pushes himself off the comfortable bedroll to explore this not-yet-discovered place. Pattering out of the otherwise empty bedroom on soft feet, he sniffs in the light fragrance of scented lacquer that hides the underlying smell of rotting wood. The only pieces of furniture in the living room are a low table with two cushions on either side, and a cabinet placed before it, on top of which a television set had probably once sat. Now, though, there is a layer of gray on the cabinet and cracks run down its edges, and when a small breeze blows through, dust particles are sent dancing into the still air.

Compared to the press of restless bodies and the sour-bitter odor of sweat at the orphanage, Naruto much prefers this minimalistic dining room containing nothing more than the most strictly mandatory things. His gaze automatically zeroes in on the half-loaf of bread left on the low table and his stomach growls loudly in plaintive demand.

Normally, he wouldn't have even hesitated to reach out and nab a slice or two for himself (or maybe the whole loaf), but this is Kakashi-sensei's home and he feels _compelled _to be on his best behavior. So, instead of stealing a bit of food to fill his belly, he simply searches for the bathroom, eyes darting left and right around the apartment in the greedy drinking manner of an inquisitive and very much amazed child as he steps towards the nearest door.

He turns the knob and remembers vaguely that it's rude to explore people's houses like that. Thankfully though, he gets it right on the first try and slides into the small bathroom, wincing when the rusty hinges of the door give a squeak of protest. He stops for a moment at the entrance and takes in the sight of the bathroom, which looks strangely disused. There is only a bar of soap, a single toothbrush and a small tube of toothpaste, and it looks even less personalized than the shared bathrooms in the orphanage.

Somehow, though, he still feels like he's intruding on something, so he washes up quickly and slips back out of the house.

Before, his life has always been pranks, pranks and yet _more _pranks, but now it's gained a new some_one (to prank, perhaps) _and so, of course, the first thing that he does that morning (more like noon) is to search for Kakashi-sensei.

But that presents him with a whole other problem. Where _is _the silver-haired ANBU? For that matter – he stops outside the door to the apartment building, looking out at the busy streets of Konoha – where is _he? _

It takes breakfast, an hour of yelling Kakashi-sensei's name, lunch, another two hours of running around in circles, before he stumbles across training ground three and the Memorial by accident. He is actually escaping from an enraged shop owner after accidentally knocking over a basket of fruits in his hurry, but he's long since lost that rickety old man in the winding roads and narrow alleyways, and in any case, that's made quite inconsequential the moment he spots Kakashi-sensei.

Then, suddenly, all the insecurities and uncertainty that he's been trying not to think about hits him – what if the jōnin doesn't want him around anymore? What if he annoys the silver-haired man and Kakashi-sensei suddenly decides that having a kid hang around him is much too bothersome and leaves without even a backward glance?

He shoves the thoughts away from his mind and flings himself in front of the ANBU, grinning and distressingly orange, because he's _not_ a coward and he will never, _ever _run away.

But when Kakashi-sensei suddenly tells him to stay and promptly disappears in a swirl of dust and leaves, he cannot help but lurch forward and grab at the space where the ANBU had been standing just a second ago, whimpering _no, don't- _because somehow the jōnin has wriggled his way into a very special place in his heart, and if he loses one of his only two precious people it'll be like being _torn in half. _

It takes two seconds that feel like infinity for the ANBU to return, and he returns with candy and ramen – for _him_, for _Naruto, _and that is the most incredible thing of all. He doesn't dare to believe it, almost doesn't dare to even ask _(what if it isn't for him after all and he's just being a pretentious little brat?) _but once he does and Kakashi-sensei answers, he doesn't even know how to _react _anymore.

He's dazed and shell-shocked and speechless_, _and he doesn't think he can say a word or even _smile_ without degenerating into a brawling mess, so he stuffs his face with ramen and tries to hide the fact that he is crying big fat tears of relief and joy.

When the silver-haired ANBU _looks_ _into his eyes _and promises to buy him candy, what he hears is an oath _never to leave him behind _and he can't bring himself to care about pretenses anymore. He grins and he lets the tears slide unabashedly down his whisker-marked cheeks, and in that moment, Kakashi-sensei becomes _Kakashi-nii _and his world is breathtakingly_ perfect. _

But maybe _perfect _is not meant to last, because the ANBU breaks the moment when he crinkles his eye and tells the blond sadly that he has to leave for a mission. He _swears_ that he will be back, and that Naruto had better wait for him, but slowly, days turn into a week, then two, then three. No matter how hard he tries to drive away the fear that Kakashi-nii might never come back, it still lingers in his mind, all day and all night.

It's been a month, and the ANBU still hasn't returned.

_(But Kakashi-nii's _promised_ Naruto and ninja don't go back on their word, do they?)_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Just to clarify, the first two parts are Naruto's backstory of sorts, and he's four years old in both of them (or at least he starts out four in the second one; the birthday is his fifth one). The last one should be self-explanatory, and just to clarify, he's five years old in it. :)


	4. Return

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto!

**Chapter 4**

_Return_

* * *

><p><em>Something is wrong, <em>Kakashi considers as he flashes quickly through several hand-seals and slams his palm onto the ground, an earth wall rising in front of him moments before a wave crashes against it. _Something's wrong with me, _he thinks.

His body seems a little off today, jumping away just a bit too easily and strangely reluctant to _move._ He wonders, even as he leaps away from a Fuuton, whether he is …afraid_. _He doesn't know what exactly it is like, hasn't allowed himself to feel fear for so long, but he supposes it does remind him vaguely – _very _vaguely – of the first time he'd been sent on a C-rank, still a kid, freshly-minted genin and all. But this mission definitely isn't challenging enough to scare him.

It's another assassination mission, as most ANBU ones are, but with probable engagement with a group of A- and B-rank missing-nin from Kiri recently reported to have been spotted in the area, hence why a team of three had been sent out instead of him alone. Thus far, nothing has been really out of their expectations; they've encountered the nuke-nin – battling it out right now, in fact – but that is within mission parameters and they've all been on high alert, anyway.

So _why_ is he feeling so uneasy_? _

"What's wrong, brat?" The enemy sneers, an ugly grin twisting his features, "How are you in ANBU with only those defensive jutsu you're wielding? Bah, Konoha's standards are getting lower and lower." He launches forward with another Suiton forming on his fingers, though he's forced to dodge and abandon it when Kakashi shoots out two shuriken from his holster, covering them with just a slight crackling layer of lightning-based chakra.

He doesn't show any sign of having heard the missing-nin, no reaction aside from attacking more fiercely than before, but it does occur to him that the man might be partially right. His mind works furiously even as he consciously moulds his chakra for the attack the other had been preparing for just a moment ago, his Sharingan eye swirling as his hands switch from sign to sign effortlessly. He had been following his battle instincts, as he's done for a long time now, but never before had he used so much _defensive jutsu. Why? _he growls softly, frustrated with his own mind.

Kakashi almost pays for his moment of inattentiveness when a detached hand shoots out of the ground beneath him, and he flings himself out of the way just barely in time. Swearing under his breath, he turns and automatically lands in a position ready to take off again. There is a split-second during which he pauses, taking in the sudden increase in numbers – one of the new arrivals must have been the one who'd caught him unaware with the Doton –, because it appears that the missing-nin have back-up, _lots _of it, and his team certainly isn't ready for it.

It's obvious that they're awfully out-numbered, maybe a fifteen-to-three, and many of these ex-Kiri-ninja are at least upper-chuunin level. Experience and a quick mental calculation tell him that his chakra will be utterly depleted if he even manages to get his team out of this mess. Then, not allowing himself a moment more to think, he throws himself back into the fray almost frantically, jutsu mixing with chakra-enhanced kunai and his eye a bloody red.

A startled, cut-off curse pulls Kakashi's attention away from his own fight just in time to see ANBU Bear slam heavily against a tree trunk and drop to the ground with a muffled thump, crumpling unnaturally still against the tree roots with crimson life fluid seeping out of numerous puncture wounds on his body. The moment of silence that follows is deafeningly loud, and some kind of switch _flips, _pure animalistic rage taking over Kakashi's mind and his control of his body.

"Don't you _dare,_" ANBU Captain Hound snarls as Chidori bursts into life, "_hurt _my _team._"

He lunges forward before anyone could properly react and pierces through an ex-Kiri-nin's chest like a hot knife through butter, chakra chirping intensely like a thousand little birds. He's all sharp edges and _kill _and _dangerdangerdanger _now_,_ and almost involuntarily, the missing-nin flinch away from the smell of ozone permeating the air.

Hound growls, feral and deadly_,_ as he shoots forward towards the _bastard _who had dealt that last blow to Bear. He's team _Captain, _dammit, and _no one (never again) _is going to die on his watch.

He'll damn well make sure of that.

* * *

><p>Naruto has taken to hanging around the village gates considerably more than before. But it's not like he really <em>has <em>any place to go to, and the gate guards – often Kotetsu-san and Izumo-san – are quite a lot nicer to him than most of the villagers, anyway.

His real reason, of course, is not exactly that, though at the moment he's trying pretty hard not to think about it (_Kakashi-nii, gone – forever?_). He attempts to climb the not-exactly child-friendly gates, bounces around over-enthusiastically on the roof of the guardhouse, and plans and executes several pranks that often end with someone or other screaming at him (while he grins cheekily back, of course).

Still, nothing compares to the times when caravans full of trading goods roll in on squeaky wheels, often with a child or two carting on the back, and he always finds himself sniggering as he weaves between the spokes of the wheels, blatantly ignoring the gate guards' calls for him to go back and not cause any trouble. He loves how those travelling merchant kids are always willing to play with him, bringing tricks and games from all the different places they've been to. Someday he wants to travel around the world just like those kids – how cool would that be?

Of course, he has his fair share of fun scaring Kotetsu-san and Izumo-san half to death too, though he probably takes too much pride in stretching the two chuunin's nerves about as thin as they would go without plain snapping. They're always yelling things like _Naruto, you're going to fall and break your neck! _and _Naruto, you're going to be skewered by a pole! _but what can he say? Being paranoid is probably an occupational hazard. But sometimes there's also _Naruto, have you had lunch? _and he thinks he likes those questions more than anything else because it always gets him free ramen – or candy. Even if they insist sweets aren't good for his teeth.

But hey, he's not known as a prankster for _nothing. _He's earned his title and all, you know. He's gotta live up to it too, sometimes. Offering him _candy _isn't going to stop him at all. Nu-uh.

It's about his second week in now (_forty-four days and still counting)_, and it's a hot, hot, hot, hot, _hot _afternoon. There is little conversation exchanged among the trio sheltering in the little guard booth – even Naruto has retreated after nearly scalding every part of his body when he attempted to lie down on the roof earlier – just a muttered curse now and then, accompanied by complaints of the Land of Fire taking its name too seriously, and _why _there are even guards posted out here when it's _sweltering _and no one in his right mind would infiltrate a hidden village on such a day.

But then again, shinobi aren't exactly known for being 'in their right mind'.

Naruto, for one, is truly doubting their collective sanity: _guard duty! _When it's so _hot! _He can't believe it. He flops onto the cooler (not cool, not by a far stretch) concrete ground, his orange jacket long since abandoned. He doesn't even have the energy to learn the no doubt five-year-old-unhealthy cuss words the two chuunin are exchanging right now, and all he can do is groan. Just groan and wait for summer to pass.

He's probably not going to notice it even if he melts into a strangely-colored puddle of human on the ground right now. He's pretty close to it anyway, isn't he? In fact, he's on the very verge of hallucinating big fluffy orange toads croaking loudly on lily pads floating idly on top of him. He's a puddle now, he thinks. Maybe. Are puddles supposed to be all swirly like lollipops?

He doesn't know anymore. Honestly. And- what's that saying again? Ah. It could be that he's finally been dropped on his head too many times.

Has he been dropped on his head? He's pretty sure he's been lying on something all along.

...Squishy?

Ah, it's so _hot. Not squishy, _he reminds himself. _Hot._

…

Are those two words even remotely related?

_No, _he hears Izumo say, but he doesn't know whether the teen is speaking to him. Whatever, it'll do as an answer, he supposes.

Then sharply, _Naruto, get up. _

He moans and buries his face into the weirdly squishy concrete ground, listening to Izumo and Kotetsu's suddenly agitated chatter through a very thick haze.

_Naruto, _along with a bit of shaking, _something's happened. You have to get out of the way._

Naruto blinks blearily and stares up into Kotetsu-san's urgent expression. Has he fallen asleep? Could this all be a dream? He is very tempted to drop his head onto the ground again because he really doesn't want to _move, _but suddenly he's lifted up rather roughly, and he's yelping and flailing in the air.

"Naruto," the spiky-haired teen says, his tone clipped and all business, seeming to forget for a moment that the blond is _five _and doesn't get quite a bit of what he's trying to say, "there's an injured squad approaching Konoha rapidly – critical condition. They've sent a message ahead and we need this place cleared for the medics. You can go back to town on your own, can't you?"

The boy nods hesitantly in response to the question, still a little in a stupor, but Kotetsu-san has moved on quickly, leaving him blinking in bafflement as people in white coats rush about in preparation for something that he doesn't understand. After a while, he manages to process enough to realize that it's something serious, and decides to stay behind to watch. It doesn't matter if he doesn't get in the way, right? So he clambers back onto the roof of the guardhouse, crouching down and taking special care not to touch any metal.

In all the confusion and mess, it seems like an eternity and yet only moments before there is suddenly a rise in the din and several of the people hurry out of the gates, expressions panicked. He catches a few phrases here and there – '_worse than we thought' _and _'this hasn't happened… long while…' _– and follows curiously behind, far away enough for none of the harried medical staff to notice.

He squints ahead to see where the medics are heading, craning his neck this way and that to spy what all this hustle and bustle is about. He raises his hand to shield his eyes from the sun, and spots a …black bundle?

_Whazzat? _he wonders. Is that – what had Kotetsu-san called it again? Aha! – a _squad? _He immediately runs ahead of the medic-nin to get a closer look.

It soon becomes apparent that the black bundle is not in fact a black bundle but several people bundled in black, hoods pulled up over their hair and masks covering their facial features. His heart skips a beat for a moment in excitement – new people are always interesting – at the same time that it clenches. The man in the middle reminds him so _sharply_ of Kakashi-nii, what with the white breastplate and arm guards he's wearing underneath his partially-opened cloak, that Naruto jolts and misses a step.

He barely manages to catch himself, but the moment he straightens again his blood freezes. He stops right in the middle of the dirt road, eyes wide and bile rising up his throat, just a few yards away from the man limping slowly along the path with a ninja – _not a black bundle –_ strapped across his shoulders and another leaning heavily on him.

A few medic-nin seemed to have noticed his sudden appearance, for he thinks that there are shouts in the background – _are there?_ Are they really shouting at him? He doesn't know, and honestly he can't _hear _them, because these men are splattered, no, _covered_ in red -_he doesn't know what blood looks like but maybe it's like this- _and _reeking _of copper-acid. He can taste it at the back of his throat and the smell clogs his nose, his mind, a sea of red filling up his vision and _drowning _his senses in it.

He draws a big shuddering breath and takes a wary step backward, suddenly acutely aware of the danger he's landed in. He doesn't even know who these men are, but they can't be good, can they? They're drenched in _blood_. Everything in him is screaming at him to run, _they're coming closer, _but his legs can't move and instead decide to give out underneath him, plopping his small body on the ground.

The two still conscious wearily lift their gazes from where they had been focused on the next step, the next 20-centimeters-ahead that seemed more like a mile, a telltale two seconds too slow for an active-duty shinobi. But Naruto, with dilating pupils still fixed on the crimson substance that blends in almost too well with the dark fabric from afar, is _sure _that he's as good as dead.

Between one second and the next – to the boy, an _eternity _instead – Hound's eyes land on a head of bright yellow hair and cerulean blue eyes, and a flicker of surprise somehow dredges up the energy for him to blurt out the name,

"N-naruto?"

Naruto's wide, fearful gaze snaps up to the ANBU struggling underneath the weight of two of his men, because he _knows that voice it's_, "Kakas-"

He is cut off abruptly when, without warning, the man collapses onto the ground with scarcely a grunt, the hood of his cloak fluttering up to reveal silver hair dyed in places by a deep, dirty brown. The ANBU whom he'd been supporting falls atop him and tries vainly to get back up, or at least roll off Hound so he could _breathe _or something, and _god damn it Captain you went too far again. _

Naruto's alarmed and distressed cry follows him as he leaps to his feet and practically _flies _to the other's side, floundering about. He is so desperate to help, to do something, but he doesn't know _how to_. He's just a kid, and he really doesn't even know what's _wrong, _much less what to do to right it. What if he ends up making it worse instead and hurting him even more?

Out of the blue, the five-year-old bursts into tears, confused and helpless and so, so scared. Kakashi-nii is –_injuredbleeding_dying_- hurt, _but _what is he supposed to do?!_

"Naruto," a harsh, trembling whisper cuts through his panic, but it's so very _strange _because Kakashi-nii never sounds so vulnerable, "D-don't cry, kid, it'll be alright."

The blond can somehow hear the tired smile hanging in the ragged breaths and soft words, and a sob wrecks his small frame, "Y-you're back, you're _back-_" He swipes frantically at his eyes, trying to wipe the wetness off his cheeks but failing as saline globules continue to fall uncontrollably. He attempts to offer a grin, but it's wobbly and tear-stained, merely a paltry imitation of his usual one.

"You promised," he chants, "You promised you promised you promised _you promised_." _And you kept it. _

It strikes Kakashi suddenly, the reason why he had felt so odd during the mission – he'd been holding back a little, hadn't he? He'd actually wanted to get out of the whole mess _alive. _He had had something – someone_ – _to return to, and that had made all the difference. It is why_ he's _the one half-carrying his whole team back and not lying somewhere far, far away from Konoha, chakra-exhausted and unconscious and _half-wishing he would just die on some mission already._

A shaky breath cum chuckle rattles Kakashi's whole form, but he's not entirely sure what he's laughing at anymore. Instead he murmurs, words half-slurred and incoherent-sounding to his own ears, "I promised."

He knows that's important but he can't quite remember _why_, because his mind is feverishly hot and sluggish and it's all he can do to force out one last sentence before he loses his battle against unconsciousness – he needs to get this out though, needs to let Naruto know he hasn't been lying,_ not like he always does_ –,

He tries to lift this head off the ground and smile back at his little bundle of sunshine, and though it's reasonable enough to assume that he hasn't been successful with that, he makes sure that Naruto hears him when he layers another oath onto his promise, "I don't intend to break it."

A kind of fulfillment and comfort spreads slowly throughout his body, sweet as honey and just as precious, because it's been so _long _since he's kept a promise that he honestly didn't think himself capable anymore. But... it's something to hold on to as well, right?

Maybe the kid might just be able to set _him _right.

(_He's never had a brother or a sister and he's never wanted one, but he recalls, faintly and abstractedly, that there might have been a time when he wasn't even in the Academy yet, when he'd been missing Father's company and had wished- he had _wished.)

Then he wonders, mind hazy and already more than half asleep, if he's dreaming when he hears Naruto choke out a soft, quiet '_thank you', _and half a beat later, _'Kakashi-nii'. _

He is burning up with exhaustion and buried too far underneath the veil of sleep to know much, but he does know that when he falls into the embrace of an inky darkness, it is velvety and light, reminiscent of soft breaths and gentle murmurings in his ear.

It has been so long since he's felt so very, very _safe_.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Sorry to the reviewers who wanted to see Naruto caring for Kakashi (that's a brilliant idea by the way), but that'll come in the next chapter. :) Also, I don't actually know if you can coat shuriken/kunai with chakra but hey it seems cool to me, plus the pointy thingies are made of metal and Kakashi's chakra is electricity, so I was like 'meh why not'.

Oh, could someone please explain to me how the Academy system works in canon? Since Naruto took the graduation exam thrice, did he enter the Academy two years earlier than his year mates? And if so, doesn't that mean that he was only in the same class as the Genin nine for one year, as he was held back twice? Also, how long is the standard Academy curriculum? I'm under the impression that it's four years long (meaning that the standard admission age is nine while Naruto entered at seven), but I'm not sure so please correct me if I'm wrong. :) This whole thing is messing up the already very vague timeline that I sort of have.

Thanks and sorry for the long A/N!


	5. Doctors

Exams are over for the year! Hell yeah!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto!

**Chapter 5**

_Doctors_

* * *

><p><em>Beep.<em>

The smell of antiseptic.

_Beep._

The faint, never quite scrubbed-out sweetness of blood.

_Beep._

The sun is shining uncomfortably in his eyes, and all he wants is to go back to sleep.

_Beep._

A chakra signal pushes at the edge of his consciousness.

_Beep._

Kakashi peels open both eyelids with some effort and quickly regrets it a moment later when the bright light that floods into his vision makes his head pound painfully behind his eyes. A series of rapid beeps tells him that he'd just sent a medic running with his accidental spike in heart rate.

The more pressing matter, though, is who the visitor he'd sensed might be. He never gets any visitors, except the occasional squad member, but it doesn't seem like any ANBU's chakra – the reserves are still too small, seeming to be about upper-genin level – and yet, it is oddly …reminiscent. But he doesn't know any genin, does he?

He opens his eyes a slit and turns his gaze onto the chair by the hospital bed, and he blinks in utter incomprehension. Then, as he watches the boy's calm, steady breathing, an inexplicable warmth spreads slowly through his body, and his chest constricts painfully when he tries to restrain the emotions that threaten to overwhelm him. Hesitantly, he stretches out a hand towards the blond head of bed-hair, the corners of his lips pulling up gently.

A rapidly approaching chakra signature stops him though, and almost guiltily, he drops his arm back onto the bed and assumes a neutral position, which isn't all that hard to do considering the fact that he can hardly move his stiff and chakra-exhausted limbs at all. Barely a second later, a stern-looking medic bursts into the room, stirring Naruto from his sleep. The boy sits up, yawning and rubbing his foggy eyes with the back of his hands, even as the medic-nin hurries to the patient's bedside and checks for any renewed sign of injury.

Finding nothing, the woman dressed in the standard white uniform begins to inform Kakashi in a brisk, no-nonsense manner of his various injuries. Had the ANBU not been so used to listening to medics – and especially this particular one, who's practically been assigned to him with how often he lands in the village hospital – reel off a plethora of wounds in rapid succession, he would have winced. By his calculations, a normal jōnin would be put off-duty for at least three weeks, but ANBU had no such thing as 'off-duty'. Regardless, he's certain the Hokage wouldn't call on him for anything short of an emergency for at least that period of time.

Suddenly, his thoughts are disrupted by a gleeful cry of 'Kakashi-nii!' and something jolts in his chest. He'd thought he dreamt it. He hadn't dared to even _hope. _The kid had really called him Kakashi-_nii, _hadn't he? He opens his mouth to reply, only to find the boy being held up in the air by the cuff of his jacket, whining for the nurse to let him go. A bubble of rage begins to gather in his gut just before the woman says in the same crisp tone she'd just used on the ANBU, "No jumping on patients, understand?" and he suddenly realizes that this medic is one of the few people who sees Naruto as a host instead of a demon.

After the boy nods, she releases him carefully onto the ground, and Naruto scampers to the bed, peering intently at the injured jōnin. She catches the Hatake's grateful look and though she doesn't entirely know what it's for, she returns a nod and turns on her heels to attend to her next patient. Before she steps out of the room though, she sends a small smile in the direction of the man – no, just a boy, really – and by the slight crinkling of his visible eye, she thinks he understands: _it's nice to have someone by your side when you wake up, isn't it? _

Then the door closes behind her, ending the short interaction, and Kakashi returns his attention to the wide-eyed blond. The boy's azure orbs shine with worry and an innocent curiosity as he asks, "Are you okay, Kakashi-nii?"

Before the ANBU has any time to reply, Naruto attempts to clamber onto the bed, only to teeter dangerously and nearly slide off the edge with a startled yelp. Fortunately, Kakashi snags him on the arm with reflexes honed through years of battle, and helps the boy regain his balance. The blond chirps a happy thank you and then he's off again, shooting out questions at an unbelievable rate and telling the ANBU about everything he'd missed in the month and half or so he'd been out of the village.

Kakashi's never been even remotely good at interactions, but somehow when Naruto talks to him, he doesn't feel the normal mixture of apprehension and unease because _don't get close to me it'll just drag you under_. He's not entirely comfortable_, _not yet, but even then he finds himself fighting against the weight on his eyelids trying to force them to close, and hanging onto the kid's words in much the same manner he'd once done to the boy's father.

The sedatives running through his system, however, are still too strong to overcome in his weakened state, and he finds himself losing the battle against unconsciousness. The sharp edges of the world slowly begin to blur together, making it seem softer, gentler, and Naruto's voice drifts in and out of focus. He worries a little about whether the kid might think he's getting tired of _him_, and that certainly will not do, so with the last of his very bleary wakefulness, Kakashi manages to scoot over a little and pat the spot beside him (though only in about the vaguest sense of the word 'pat').

He thinks he might have mumbled something along the lines of 'lie down' or 'good night' but it could also have turned out more like 'lie good' – his body is definitely doing an impressive job of messing up his already jumbled thoughts.

The last thing he registers is the tickling of spiky blond hair on his palm, right before the world tilts dizzyingly and he falls into a heavily drugged sleep.

* * *

><p>A couple of days after Kakashi first wakes up, he has grown so insistent on asking every medic that checks on him whether he can check out already or not, that finally one of them has given in. No doubt the ANBU would simply check himself out conveniently via window anyway, if he weren't released soon.<p>

The nurse that finally allows him to check out is a nervous little thing, probably new to the profession with how desperately she tries to adhere to the proper procedures and still keep the patients happy at the same time. Currently, she is ticking things off on a clipboard – it's most likely the form he has never really bothered to fill out. He'd always just casually sauntered out of the hospital anytime from a day to a month earlier than advised. Hm.

"Hatake-san," she opens her mouth to ask the next question on the list, "do you-"

"No," he cuts in.

The little line on her forehead deepens a little, but she moves on, "How about-"

"No."

The best answers for all these forms are always 'no'.

"Um. And do you have-"

"No," he repeats yet again.

"But you can't check out if you don't have someone to take care of or at least check in on you for the next three weeks," she says, looking slightly triumphant.

_I've never had any problems with that, _he thinks about saying, but settles for a simple shrug. "Just put it as a yes, then."

"But-"

"I can take care of Kakashi-nii," the until-now silent Naruto interrupts softly, then blushes a furious red and begins studying the instantaneously intriguing patterns on the ground.

The nurse sends a venomous glare at the boy, though fortunately the blond doesn't notice it (otherwise who knows what Kakashi would do to the poor woman), and Kakashi's opinion of her plummets. "Stupid Kyuubi brat," she mumbles under her breath, probably not intending on the other two to hear her, but severely underestimating a jōnin's senses. The temperature in the room drops several degrees, and she flinches away from the calmly murderous Hatake.

"_Naruto,_" Kakashi states coldly, the previous traces of lazy insolence gone, "will do just that."

The boy in question looks up, surprised. "R-really? You don't mind?"

"Of course."

The ANBU realizes that he's leaking a little killing intent when Naruto twitches from the icy quality of his tone, and reins it in quickly. He doesn't want to scare the boy, but it seems that he hadn't needed to worry at all, because Naruto recovers a moment later and cheers loudly, launching himself at his surrogate older brother.

The nurse has the audacity to look slightly disgusted, but a not-quite-glare from the Hatake sends her stuttering that he's allowed to leave anytime now, and then high-tailing it out of the room.

Kakashi allows the kid to dance for a while longer in his excitement, before saying, "Now then, (_now that we've finally gotten rid of her, _he thinks viciously but unrepentantly) shall we go?"

He smiles as Naruto leaps up and pumps a fist in the air, eager to get some fresh air after two weeks of being cooped up in the hospital. He'd refused to take even a step out into the village proper for as long as Kakashi was hospitalized, though the jōnin had insisted that it'd be fine.

It's pretty ridiculous, Kakashi thinks, that he really hadn't wanted the kid to leave.

* * *

><p>Hatake Kakashi, while confident in his skills and perfectly aware of his prodigious abilities, has perhaps more than his fair share of insecurities when it comes to people. He does not know how to properly interact with others, and he is often unaware of what they consider 'difficult' or 'beautiful' or even 'socially acceptable'.<p>

Hence, the closer he gets to his apartment, the more apprehensive he grows about showing the place to Naruto. Which is silly, he knows, since the boy had already been in there once and never complained about it, and Naruto probably doesn't know much more about social etiquette than he does anyway, what with his age and the way he's treated by most of the villagers.

(But if there's one thing he won't do it'll be to let Naruto down. He'll make sure the kid is at least under the impression that he's taking care of him, although Kakashi will probably be the one doing all the taking care between the two of them – five-year-olds are incredibly accident-prone, after all. And, well, if the kid doesn't even know where he lives at, he can't very well take care of Kakashi, can he?)

Still, he stops Naruto outside his apartment, hesitates a bit at the boy's confused expression, and finally says, "My apartment's quite small." Is it proper to say 'sorry about that' afterwards or something?

He doesn't really know, so he places his palm onto the door and sends a little chakra through it, deactivating the traps he'd set. He turns the knob and pushes the door inwards, watching as Naruto's eyes roam over the living room. The blond looks up at him and exclaims excitedly, "It's not small! I've been here before!"

That lightens Kakashi's anxiety a bit, so he ushers Naruto in and gives him a very quick tour of the apartment, or more accurately, he points at every door and lists, "That's the bathroom. Bedroom. Guest bedroom. Kitchen." Very simple, really.

Glancing at the clock hanging above the doorway, he realizes it's nearly six and wonders whether he should ask the kid about dinner. He doesn't have anything much in his fridge, and no doubt it would all have gone bad in the past two months, so it'd have to be takeout. He doesn't think Naruto would be a picky eater, but he can't be sure and-

"U-um, Kakashi-nii," the five-year-old stutters out, immediately catching Kakashi's attention. It's not very often that the boisterous and cheerful kid becomes nervous and uncertain, and the jōnin has a sudden epiphany on what this could be about.

"We can have dinner together," he suggests, quickly latching on to the solution to his previous debate that suddenly presented itself.

"That's not…" the blond trails off, then continues again, "Is it alright if- You don't mind that-"

Taking a deep breath, the kid finally gushes out, "Youdon'tmindmecallingyouthat?"

Kakashi blinks and takes a moment to break the sentence down into individual words. _That? _He tries to think, but can't for the life of him figure out what Naruto is trying to say. Are they still talking about dinner?

"What do you mean by 'that'?"

Naruto refuses to make eye contact with him and fidgets nervously with his orange shirt, before saying, "'K-kakashi-nii'."

_You don't mind me calling you Kakashi-nii?_

For a second, the question makes no sense at all, because it had never occurred to him that Naruto might actually think he would _mind_. (He would never, ever_, _admit it, but deep down, Kakashi honestly loves being regarded as an older brother, loves the warmth and joy and pride that a simple syllable can evoke in him, so how can he possibly _mind?_) Then it clicks, and he curses himself for not realizing that this kid, orphan and jinchuuriki and village pariah, is probably even _more _insecure than _him._

So, with a strangely pleasant and very strong sense of responsibility driving him_ (older brother, he's an older brother now, he _can't _let the kid suffer like this)_, he momentarily abandons his own demons and crashes recklessly through the walls and the masks and the lazy, uncaring demeanor he'd put up. _For Naruto's sake, _he tells himself fiercely, and reaches out, reaches forward. He pulls the kid into a tight hug, and simply lets it say all the things words alone would never have been able to tell the boy.

He believes the small hands that slowly come up to clutch at his shoulders are answer enough.

* * *

><p>ANBU Lemur, otherwise known as dumbass-with-an-idiotically-sharp-object-in-his-mouth Genma, sighs as he contemplates the white-washed ceiling of the hospital and, bored out of his mind, begins to count the number of tiles in the room. Too quickly, he exhausts that activity, and turns his head to observe the cracks in the wall, tracing them down from the ceiling to the floor. Rehabilitation, he'll say as an excuse if he gets caught, since the stiff cast thing on his neck is probably meant to prevent him from moving it. Oh well.<p>

He sighs, for what seems to be the umpteenth time that hour, as he curses his lack of ability to move his arms at all. Sure, he could twitch his fingers, and he could kick his legs around a bit in the blanket (he'd gotten tangled up), but that isn't all that entertaining and he's got a two-week stay in this bland, boring hospital room!

Just as he begins to sink into a strange daydream involving cartoon-like suns and broken glass and an assortment of rainbow-coloured senbon (maybe he could blackmail someone into getting those for him someday), a flare of chakra outside the door puts him on alert instantly. His sharp gaze flings to the entrance of the room, and he sees a faint shadow through the glass pane installed in the sliding door, a telltale sign that there's someone outside, probably leaning against it. Another moment and he realizes that it's Captain, and a faint chuckle escapes from between his lips.

Of _course_ it's Hound. Who else would communicate in such an eccentric manner?

A flash of white chakra, this time shorter and seeming just a tinge irritated.

He snorts – _impatient, aren't we?_ – and sends back a chakra pulse in response: _I'm just peachy, Captain. _He winces a little, though, feeling the disconcerting strain on his chakra reserves.

The shadow disappears a second later and the chakra signature moves down the hallway in time to footsteps just a tad heavier and slower than usual, and Genma smiles and shakes his head almost fondly. It's strange, how about half of the squad thinks of the boy as Captain and, at the same time, a little brother. But then again, Captain really _is_ just a _boy. _How old is he? Nineteen? And if he refuses to guarantee his own survival on the field, well then, wouldn't it fall on his squad to take care of him?

"Geez, Hatake," he mumbles under his breath, half-exasperated, "you could always _ask _whether I'm okay or not, y'know. Like people _normally _do. No need for chakra-flaring or fancy techniques."

Then he sighs and turns his attention back onto the thirty-two ceiling tiles.

Honestly, who does he think he's kidding?

* * *

><p>Kids, in general, take all the wrong things too seriously.<p>

Kakashi quickly realizes this as the subject of being taken too seriously.

Naruto, as it turns out, is hell-bent on properly doing his job of taking care of the ANBU. Which isn't all that great an idea, as Kakashi quickly realizes as well.

It's not that far-fetched a conclusion, if you have had a five-year-old kid lugging a bag of instant ramen easily half his size through your doorway. _After _nearly getting caught in your bazillion and one traps. It's enough to land Kakashi in hospital again with _heart failure._

However, the thought of the villagers' attitude towards the jinchuuriki and all the whispers and glares the kid no doubt had to endure to get all that ramen makes eating packets after packets of instant noodles three times a day taste much, much better.

That's beside the point, though.

You see, the kid refuses to let Kakashi do _anything _at all. Except eat, sleep and breathe. And walk, occasionally. _Occasionally. _(The only substantial amount of walking he's now allowed to do is from his bed to the table and the toilet.) Naruto has to stand on a stool just to reach the stove, but he still doesn't allow the jōnin to so much as touch the seasoning! In fact, when Kakashi had tried to help once, the kid had turned on him with a very solemn expression and explained slowly, as though to a petulant child, that he was supposed to be _resting_. _Kakashi_ wasn't the kid here_, _for crying out loud!

What's even worse is that Naruto had accidentally scalded his finger while cooking breakfast (ramen) in the morning, but he'd begun running around the apartment in circles when Kakashi had tried to take a look at it! Even exploiting the boy's weakness by pointing out that Kakashi was a patient and hence wasn't supposed to chase after a kid didn't help. The only thing it did was to make the ANBU feel old, hobbling after the little agile monkey of a boy, and he'd been torn between utter exasperation and fondness.

Right now, Kakashi figures, he's too exasperated to even be exasperated anymore, and hence he might just be leaning a little more to the affectionate side. He takes in Naruto's Extreme Look of Concentration, complete with furrowed brows and watery blue eyes and a tongue stuck between his lips, and repeats his argument, "It's just a _paper cut_, kid."

The boy nods, still with the same expression on his face.

Kakashi sighs, and wonders if he is getting through to the blond at all.

"Naruto, it's nothing serious."

"I gotta take care of you," Naruto replies soberly, as has been his standard response to practically everything, and continues the painstaking process of wrapping a simple plaster around the cut.

Just as the Hatake opens his mouth to explain – _again – _that he doesn't need a plaster for a _paper cut _(he'd gotten it when he'd been working on his mission report; see, paperwork is clearly against him), the kid beams up at him and declares happily, "All done!"

Kakashi observes the cartoon-styled plaster, and involuntarily blanches. Is that supposed to be a fox? Or is it a cat? Or maybe even a raccoon?!

"It's a doggie!" Naruto points happily at one of the animals, which honestly looks more like a beaver gone wrong than anything else. "Don't you like it, Kakashi-nii?"

The ANBU agrees readily – he actually (sort of) _does _like it, since it's part of Naruto's prized collection and the dog is somehow starting to resemble Pakkun.

The blond puffs up proudly, extending the compliment of his plaster to be a compliment of his doctoring skills and hence a matter of personal pride. He promptly deflates with a pout, though, when Kakashi chuckles and ruffles his already rumpled hair.

Kids, in general, take all the wrong things too seriously, and Kakashi quickly realizes that it is pretty _darned_ adorable.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Credits** for the last scene with the paper cut and plaster goes out to FluffyDragonsLiveInMyHouse (I love your penname by the way)! Hehe, thanks so much for the amazing idea, and I hope I delivered! XD

And I think this chapter's pretty sub-par (it also beats the number of parts any chapter I've written so far has), but I really wanted to write and I didn't feel up to editing much... It just sorta turned out like that _ *cries* There will probably be some more of doctor-Naruto, unless I miraculously manage to come up with something else for the next chapter, so don't worry, this strange, broken-up chapter isn't all you'll get of it HAHAH

By the way, if it's not clear, Genma was the other ANBU on Kakashi's little three-man team for the mission! Somehow to me, it just seemed to _click_ for Genma to be Lemur. Is it just me? (I don't actually know quite a bit of canon because I've never finished watching/reading it HAHAHA)

Thank you so much to readers/followers/favouriters/reviewers! A virtual cookie to all of you awesome people!~


	6. Kidnapped?

Sorry dudes and dudettes, looks like Doctor!naru doesn't decide to make another appearance after all. Eheheheheh… You do get more of Genma (I'm so happy many of you guys liked his small addition in the previous chap!) and BigBro!kaka though so :)

**Disclaimer: **Don't own!

**Chapter 6**

Kidnapped?

* * *

><p>When Naruto tips over the dinner table, chopsticks in hand and half-chewed ramen still in his mouth, Kakashi doesn't have the time to react since he's bent over his own bowl and slurping up noodles. By the time he does register that the kid has dunked his own face into his broth and looks up, alarmed, Naruto has already sprung back up and is blinking rapidly at him.<p>

Kakashi stares a little incredulously at the soup dripping from the tips of Naruto's hair and onto his shirt as the boy smiles abashedly and licks at the broth sliding down his whisker-marked cheeks. Kakashi's seen various forms of self-harm, often involving the use of sharp, pointy objects (it's actually not so much self-harm as suicide for the sake of information preservation), but he fails to understand how dunking one's _face _into a bowl of _ramen _can, in any way, resemble a good idea.

Then he considers what five-year-olds are prone to do, and asks, disbelieving, "Did you just fall asleep?"

"No!" Naruto protests, and immediately leaps up from his seat, "I didn't! I'm not tired, not at all!"

He waves his child-friendly utensils around in clear distress, though it's sort of threatening with the way he swings them frighteningly close to the older boy's eyeballs. Kakashi's already lost one eye before, and he prefers his current mismatched ones staying right where they are, thank you very much.

Just as he reaches out to try and placate the kid into some far less dangerous activity, such as peacefully eating his ramen, Naruto keels over without warning, slumping onto the floor with his chopsticks clattering noisily away from his hands.

Kakashi stares for a full five seconds, utterly stupefied, then leaps _clean_ over the table to Naruto's side. He frantically checks the kid's pulse, breathing, eyes, throat, chakra, blood flow, and heck, he's halfway through an _ANBU_ medical check-up before he realises that Naruto has just fallen asleep.

_Again._

He runs a hand through his silver hair, the now familiar feeling of exasperation-cum-reluctant-fondness resurfacing. Sighing, he bends down and slides his arms under the kid's shoulders and knees.

"Whatever am I going to do with you?" He asks sorrowfully to no one in particular, and Naruto lets out a loud snore in reply.

"That's not a very good answer," the ANBU says accusingly, even as the blond wriggles a little in his hold, as though in protest.

Kakashi wonders what it means if he's actually holding a two-sided conversation with a _sleeping _five-year-old.

Resolutely, the silver-haired ninja pushes himself up, wincing a little from the partially-healed wound on his leg, turns on his heels and marches to the guest bedroom door. Then he realises that both his hands are occupied, and awkwardly manoeuvres the boy until he can reach to open the door with one struggling hand. He ends up in an embarrassing position that looks remarkably like he is proposing to his door knob, what with him kneeling on the floor with one knee, propping Naruto up with the other, and rolling the boy onto his upper arms to free his right hand.

Thankfully, none of his squad members suddenly decide that it is a good idea to crash his apartment, so he's spared the teasing and blackmail that would likely never have ever stopped. Regardless, he still jumps to his feet the moment the door swings open and glances around guiltily, as though caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

He knows it's stupid, of course, and thus wonders when the kid has managed to infect him with his… well, childishness.

He places Naruto down onto the futon in the spare bedroom gently, tugs the sheets up and tucks them in tightly around the boy. A sudden, sentimental urge to push the bright yellow fringe aside and kiss the child's forehead surfaces, echoed by a half-blurred memory of his father doing that to an extremely young Kakashi, way younger than even Naruto is right now. He knows it's more of a motherly gesture, but his mother had died in childbirth and his father had stepped in neatly to compensate for at least a part of that.

Still, he quickly shoves aside the unexpected nostalgia and mushiness, and satisfies himself with brushing a hand across the boy's forehead, just the lightest of touches. He mutters softly, careful not to wake the kid, "Good night, Naruto."

In his hurry to leave the room, a blush steadily creeping up beneath his mask, Kakashi misses the way the blond mumbles happily in his sleep and rubs a hand over his head, almost as if trying to find and hold an imaginary hand.

That night, Naruto dreams not of a confusing mess of blond and red, furious roaring and vile chakra, but of swimming in a big bowl of lukewarm miso ramen with a silver-haired chibi floating lazily beside him in an upturned Hokage's hat, and of feeling more at peace than he can remember ever being before.

* * *

><p>Kakashi wakes up with, for the second time in the same number of weeks, the early morning sun shining brightly in his eyes through the partially drawn shades.<p>

That's wrong. He's been waking up before the sun rises since he was _six. _(He first started it to give himself more time for training, but after Obito's death, it's grown into something a little more than that; he's just never quite able to sleep properly for an entire night anymore.)

So there's either something wrong with him, or-

_-Is something burning?_

Immediately, the ANBU is alert and seated upright in bed, sniffing out the air carefully. All Hatake's have good noses - perhaps not quite as exceptional as the Inuzuka's, but still excellent - and there's _definitely _something burning somewhere close to his location.

Had he left something on the stove last night? No, that couldn't be, the smell would have awoken him a lot earlier than this, unless the kid had just been cooking breakfast or something.

Oh. _Oh. _Since it's already this late, the boy should have woken up and made himself breakfast already by now, so could he have burnt something? But then again, he only ever cooks ramen and Kakashi doubts even _he_ can burn ramen, considering the amount of soup in it. Unless something's happened, and maybe even now the kid is being suffocated by fire and smoke and _oh God what if I'm too late again?_

Before he's consciously aware of it, Kakashi's leapt off the bed and is bursting through the door, even as the logical part of his mind catches up and points out that the smell's not strong enough to indicate a full-out fire yet, so the kid can't be in any danger.

Still, Kakashi hurtles into the kitchen to find smoke rising from the pot, the broth all but evaporated, and Naruto ...nowhere in sight.

That doesn't calm any of his panic or worry and instead only makes his heart race even faster, because as silly as it sounds, whatever has happened that could have made _Naruto_ forget about his _ramen_ - left on the stove for at least over an hour - can only be very, very bad.

As in, kidnapped-by-enemy-ninja kind of bad. For one, Naruto could very well _have_ indeed been kidnapped. Every major village has at least a couple of spies hidden in it, after all, and what's to say that no one has found out that Naruto is Minato's child yet, especially with the blond hair and blue eyes that are already making him look like a mini-Yondaime? (Of course, the odds of that S-ranked secret getting out are so incredibly low it's practically negligible, but Kakashi's not very inclined to think clearly right then.)

Also, there's always the chance that the kid's been captured to get at _Kakashi _- he's certain that if an enemy of his (and he has no shortage of those) had somehow noticed Naruto in his apartment sometime in the past week, this would most likely be the cause of the blond's mysterious disappearance.

Kakashi would be _damned _if he ever lets another person die because of _him_ again, and so it takes only a couple of seconds at most for him to be out on the streets, scanning the crowds desperately for a mop of blond hair or a hint of orange, barely remembering even to switch off the stove.

He fiercely forces himself to ignore the possibility that he might never find the boy, cheerful grins and brilliant cerulean eyes and impractical love of orange and all, because as unlikely as it is, it's still a _possibility_.

And Kakashi's way too used to having things with the slimmest chances of happening blowing up spectacularly in his face, so he can't quite shake the thought that maybe he's just deceiving himself after all.

* * *

><p>Genma is used to his squad mates and even other jounin randomly deciding to make an appearance via shunshin, so he's not very surprised when his Captain suddenly drops down from a rooftop and lands on the street next to him, even if he's a little startled and already has one hand reaching for his weapons pouch.<p>

He _is_ very surprised, though, when he takes in the Hatake half-clad in standard ANBU gear, with only the sleeveless black shirt, standard issue pants and shinobi sandals on. He knows how paranoid Kakashi is, so the fact that he's missing some parts of his armor - even if only in his own village - is quite worrying.

Then he takes in the harried look on his Captain's face (or well, half his face; even in his haste he hadn't forgotten his mask and hitai-ate), and he immediately sobers because he can count on one hand the number of ninja who hide their feelings as well as Hatake Kakashi, and if that emotionless mask is crumbled so badly there must be something very wrong.

Before he can ask, though, Kakashi cuts in, "Genma, have you seen a boy - blond hair, blue eyes, about this short," he gestures around his waist as he tries to recall what Naruto had been wearing the previous night, "clad in a white shirt and orange shorts?"

His voice is steady, and perhaps most would even say that it's calm and unfeeling, but Genma can easily hear the undercurrent of concern bordering on panic.

He hasn't seen the kid around, and is just about to say so and ask why Kakashi's searching for him, when his brain catches up and he ends up choking on his next breath.

"Kakashi," he asks incredulously when he recovers from his coughing fit, "you have a _kid_?"

The silver-haired jounin starts to nod, then blanches as he realises what Genma is really suggesting and vehemently shakes his head. "Not mine. An orphan."

That honestly raises more questions than answers in Genma's mind, but he realises that it's not quite the time for it.

He sighs heavily, and answers, "Sorry Hatake, can't say I've seen him."

At Kakashi's anxious and almost crestfallen expression, Genma adds on a whim, "Want me to help search for the boy?"

Half a second later he curses himself, because Kakashi would _never _accept an offer to help, and Genma's seen how his Captain can so easily and inconspicuously withdraw into himself. Just when Kakashi's finally loosened up a bit, he just has to go ruin it by saying something that sounds awfully like _pity?_

And so when Kakashi doesn't comment and instead only sends him a grateful look and a short nod, Genma is stunned. He doesn't have much time to get his bearings, though, because his Captain's already in position to take off at any second.

"I'll take the east half of the village," Kakashi says, and it's half a command and half a suggestion.

"And I'll take west," Genma agrees.

The ANBU Captain immediately leaps away via the rooftop route, while the tokubetsu jounin takes just the barest second to store away the memory of this particular meeting, because there's something amazingly heartwarming about seeing the nineteen-year-old expressing emotion for once.

Whoever that blond boy is, Genma has a feeling that he'll be good for Kakashi.

_I'll find him,_ he swears, and in another moment, he's pushed off the streets onto the rooftops and blurred out of sight.

* * *

><p>In the end it's Genma who finds the boy first, huddled over himself in the shadows of a backstreet near the outskirts of the village center. Genma had almost missed the kid pressing himself into the corner of the dirty alleyway, with his arms wrapping around himself and pulling his knees tightly against his chest. Though his face is buried in his knees, the shaking of his small shoulders is enough of an indication that he's crying, and Genma feels his heart clench.<p>

It's a little disconcerting that if it hadn't been for the boy's bright blond hair and the fact that Genma is an ANBU, he might never have found the kid. It's ...sad, that a child so young would be able to hide this well, because it speaks not of genius or training, but of experience in disappearing off the face of the earth, in being unloved and ignored and unimportant.

Genma can't say he's any good with children, much less neglected children, but he does know a little of how to apply some of the basics he's learnt about dealing with people, in particular clients. So he doesn't jump down from the roof directly into the alley, but instead lands on an adjacent street and walks loudly and steadily into the narrow space between two buildings, trying not to startle the blond. He stops a respectful distance away and hunkers down to about eye level, making sure that he's far enough to be unthreatening, but near enough not to appear like he's afraid or repulsed by the boy.

"Hey, kid," Genma greets, slightly awkward, and then simply squats there for a couple of seconds, wondering whether he'll get a response.

When it becomes clear that the blond isn't going to do anything other than try to back himself further into the wall, the tokubetsu jounin rubs the back of his neck sheepishly and continues, "Kakashi's looking for you and I'm helping him, so..."

He trails off afterwards, not entirely sure of what the relationship is between the two, but it seems to have been the right thing to say because the boy visibly relaxes. He peeks shyly up at the man through his yellow bangs, not quite raising his head yet. "R-really?"

_He trusts Kakashi a lot, _Genma realises with some surprise, _enough to trust anyone _Kakashi _trusts. _The jounin smiles and answers happily, "Yep! He's really worried, you know?"

The boy suddenly flinches and averts his eyes again. "I'm s-sorry…"

Genma nearly cusses out loud at himself, but restrains at the last second because it'll no doubt just scare the child further. "No, no, kid; you see, being worried is just a way to show that you care, and Kakashi is very, very worried."

"Really?" The blond sniffles and asks again, this time looking up at the jounin before him.

Genma's completely taken aback for a full second once he sees the whisker-like birthmarks and the blond-hair-blue-eyes ensemble, two names crashing into his mind at the same time - _Yondaime _and _Kyuubi. _Both are impossibly powerful but one's revered and the other feared, though for Genma there's none of the fear factor, not when he's one of the few who had known of Minato's and Kushina's marriage and their subsequent child.

While he can't claim to have known the Yondaime all that well personally, they had still been _friends, _eating together occasionally and sharing a drink once or twice. He'd respected Minato and enjoyed his company, not only as the Hokage but as a person, and Kushina had likewise been very pleasant - albeit hot-headed - company. He can't possibly think of their son as a _monster_ like the rest of Konoha does, and besides, he has complete trust in the Yondaime's fuuinjutsu. The boy - _Naruto, _that's his name - is only the prison, not the prisoner, and Genma is confident that he'll never become anything other than that.

He draws in a breath and, realising that the kid is still waiting for his answer, replies with utter certainty, "Yes, Naruto; Kakashi's very, very worried, but that just means that he cares very, very much."

Naruto's wide-eyed look of disbelief followed by awe slowly morphs into a bright, full-power grin, and Genma almost stumbles back a little at the exposure to the joy and pure _light _being exuded by the five-year-old.

"Let's go look for Kakashi-nii!" Naruto crows, and, swiping a hand quickly across his tear-stained cheeks, leaps up onto his feet.

"Okay," Genma likewise pushes himself to a standing position, and then offers a hand to the kid, "Wanna go by a faster route?"

Naruto gasps comically. "There's one?"

"Of course," The tokubetsu jounin laughs, pointing at the rooftops, and swings the excited boy onto his back. He pushes off with a chakra-boosted jump, and chirps, "Off we go!"

He gets a gleeful 'wheeeee!' in reply, and chuckles at the kid's enthusiasm.

Naruto then declares cheerfully, pumping a fist into the air, "Kakashi-nii, here we come!"

_Kakashi-nii, eh? _Genma thinks amusedly to himself. _Good for Captain indeed._

* * *

><p>When they find Kakashi on the other side of the village, Naruto surprises both ANBU by running to the extremely relieved silver-haired ninja the moment Genma puts him down.<p>

"I care about Kakashi-nii very, very much!" He cries, and throws himself at said jounin's legs.

Kakashi's visible eye crinkles into a crescent, and his lips quirk up into a smile underneath his mask. He doesn't know where that had come from, but he ruffles Naruto's spiky blond hair fondly and says quietly, "I do too, kid."

Naruto makes a contented sound and latches onto Kakashi's hand before bouncing over to his side.

Kakashi takes that as a cue to focus his attention on his squadmate, and though the guardedness in his posture returns, the smile remains on his face and he finds that it's surprisingly easy to say, "Thank you for finding him, Genma."

Surprise flashes across the tokubetsu jounin's features, but before he has time to reply, Naruto cuts in with what has to be his way of ascertaining Kakashi's statement, "Genma-nii is very nice!"

Genma laughs and cheekily points out, "Well Capt, looks like we don't have to worry about you not getting a girl anymore. Honestly, we were beginning to think that you'd reject all of them until you die a bachelor!"

"You worry about _that?" _Kakashi returns incredulously.

"Of course! We can't _not _have little adorable, silver-haired, and unemotional kids to tease, can we? Well, Naruto's neither silver-haired nor unemotional, but he's adorable and we'll make do with that!"

Kakashi very nearly splutters, and Genma takes the opportunity to crouch down in front of Naruto again.

"Take care of your Kakashi-nii, won't you? Sometimes he doesn't like being around people very much, but make sure you'll always be around, alright?"

Naruto's face takes on an expression of very serious consideration, then brightens up.

"Okay! But Kakashi-nii is a very good boy, so it's easy to take care of him!"

Genma dissolves into uncontrollable laughter, collapsing onto his side while holding his stomach, and doesn't stop until the Hatake produces a polished kunai while blushing to the tips of his ears.

"Okay, okay," the tokubetsu jounin struggles to say between chuckles and deep breaths, "I'll leave now, I'll leave."

Still, he couldn't resist throwing down one last sentence.

"I can't wait to see what the others' reactions will be like, Kakashi!" He hollers from the rooftop, then turns tail and sprints off as quickly as he could.

As much fun as it is to embarrass his Captain, he prefers his body parts staying right where they are. Idly, he wonders whether it's worth the risk of the Hatake's divine retribution to tell their closer squad members about his newest revelation.

...Oh screw it, this particular discovery is worth risking _anything._

Except his life.

...Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to invoke Kakashi's wrath after all.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Sorry for the extremely late update guys! I've written Naruto dimension travel, Team 7 time travel, sensor!Naru, toyed with the ideas of non-jinchuuriki!Naru and ANBU!Naru and heck, even written KakaIru (which I posted), but I just couldn't write anything satisfactory for this story! I don't feel like this chapter is up to par either, but I just had to get it out. Maybe I'll come back to edit it at a later date... And hopefully the next update will be faster, since I'm going on a holiday to visit my relatives and I'll probably be quite free for the next couple of weeks!

Also, asking for some opinions here:

I don't plan to pair Kakashi as of yet, but please raise it up if you guys have any suggestions! A guest asked for KakaAnko, but I don't think I can write that... Sorry!

I'm considering including OCs in this story, more specifically two kids who will become Naruto's sort-of little bro and sis, so they're gonna play quite a bit of a role. Not as extensive as Naruto and Kakashi, of course, but yeah, does anyone have any objections? Or if anyone can think of any canon characters who can fit the role of a younger sibling, even better! Please tell me in a review or PM! Thanks :)


	7. Human

Whoa, this chap's more than 1.5 times as long as my normal ones! *cheers*

**Disclaimer: **Don't own!

**Chapter 7**

Human

* * *

><p>When Genma disappears into the distance, just a blob on a faraway rooftop somewhere, Kakashi turns to the boy by his side and tugs lightly on their joined hands. "Why don't we go back and have our breakfast - well, lunch - now?"<p>

Naruto gasps, as though suddenly realising that he's hungry and had skipped out on his breakfast.

"My ramen!" He cries in horror, and drags the silver-haired ninja into the throng of people on the streets. "It's still cooking!"

"I took it off the stove," Kakashi quickly informs him. "And my apartment's in the other direction, you know."

"Oh." Naruto flushes an adorable scarlet, and promptly makes a U-turn. It's made easy by the fact that everyone is giving the two of them a wide berth - all of the people are pressing themselves to the sides of the streets, and Kakashi would have laughed at the way they were forming almost two straight rows if he wasn't so angry for the kid.

Despite the way Naruto is pretending to ignore all of the heated gazes, skipping along excitedly with a grin on his face and babbling about ramen a mile a minute, it doesn't take much effort for a jounin to see the way the smile doesn't reach the boy's eyes, and to realise that the chatter is more out of nerves than any real desire to talk.

And so it is with a vicious kind of satisfaction that Kakashi drops a (very casually) protective hand on the kid's head, and then proceeds to glare at all those eyeing the kid with no small amount of hostility. He attempts to drown them in his _I-will-kill-you-painfully-and-then-trample-on-your-grave _intent, and it works remarkably well in making them avert their eyes.

Naruto has relaxed considerably by the time they reach the apartment, his expression less forced and shoulders less tense, and Kakashi feels inexplicably pleased with himself. It's strange, because hey - guess what makes a ninja - a _trained killer _- happy?

Why, making others _feel better_, of course!

Kakashi could just choke on his own joke.

While the ANBU mopes a little over his terrible sense of humour, Naruto bounds into the kitchen and over to the counter, where the pot of ramen he had been cooking that morning sits.

He peers incomprehensibly at the dry noodles for a while, then turns to Kakashi who had just entered after him. "Ne, Kakashi-nii, where did my soup go?" He asks, genuinely confused.

"It boiled off into steam," The jounin answers without a pause.

Naruto's mouth forms an 'o'-shape, before continuing, "Can I get it back?"

"Ah." Kakashi pauses. Technically they could condense the water vapour in the air and all, but it's just silly to do that when they have a tap right there. "You _can, _but it's really not worth the effort. Why not just cook a new packet of ramen?"

The kid accepts that without question, and cheers as he pulls out more instant ramen, chanting happily, "Lunch, lunch, lunch, lunch, lunch!"

Kakashi just chuckles, and reaches over to help rinse the pot and fill it with water once more - thankfully, he's been deemed 'recovered' enough to do so now, much to his amusement - since it's still a little heavy for the kid.

Soon enough, they're settled in the living room with a bowl of ramen each, as has become customary for them over the past three weeks. Naruto slurps away delightedly at his lunch, but Kakashi can't quite find the appetite for it, given the happenings of that morning.

He doesn't think it's probable that an enemy ninja had kidnapped Naruto anymore, since if that had really happened it's unlikely the kid would be whole and here right now. Or, could it have been something to shake him up, a warning that he has enemies out there who can take something so precious away from him? But if that had been the case, there should have been a message for him somewhere, whether relayed through Naruto or not, _and _the kid would have been hurt. There aren't any signs of injury on the boy, and he doesn't seem traumatised in any way either.

Finally, just as Naruto swallows his last mouthful and exhales loudly, patting his full stomach, Kakashi figures that he might as well just ask the boy. No point thinking so much on it, when he can get the story straight from Naruto himself.

"Ne, Naruto, what happened to you this morning?" He asks softly, taking special care to sound unassuming and reassuring, just in case something bad _has_ indeed happened and him asking about it would upset the kid somehow.

"I-" Naruto mumbles, beginning to fiddle with his shirt and training his gaze on a stain on the floor, "I thought you mightn't like t'eat ramen, like, all the time…" He gestures wildly for a bit, as though trying to indicate 'all the time'. "So I wenta get some t-takeout, but… the shop-owner kicked me out and called me m-monster and then…"

The boy takes in a deep breath, visibly uncomfortable and upset by the memory, while Kakashi struggles between an overwhelming gratitude - Naruto's actually gone out of his way for _Kakashi, _and that will never _not_ be amazing - and an overwhelming need for some petty revenge. He knows that the villagers hate - no, _fear, _first and foremost - the jinchuuriki, but he'd never quite realised the extent of their prejudice. He clenches his hands into fists, and tries to keep his killing intent in check.

After a moment, Naruto continues, "Then the people came and threw r-rotten veggies at me, and they said some real- real nasty things, so I got upset and ran away to hide."

The boy smiles shakily and scratches his cheek. "That's dumb, right? They just called me names; I shouldn't 've felt sad. Only lil' kids cry, but I'm a big boy now! I was just being stupid!"

Kakashi laughs once, twice, but mostly because he doesn't know how else to react. He doesn't want to believe how badly his sensei's son has been treated, but it's evident in how much it has influenced Naruto's personality and his beliefs.

The kid's only _five, _dammit, _five. _And children are especially treasured and some can even say pampered in ninja villages, because God knows their innocence wouldn't last long. But Naruto… Kakashi has to doubt whether the boy has ever had a childhood _at all_.

"M'sorry for makin' Kakashi-nii worry… Don' be mad…"

The kid's voice - barely more than a whisper - snaps Kakashi out of his thoughts, and he looks up to find Naruto looking downhearted once more, his previous fake smile gone.

The jounin curses out loud at his complete ineptitude when it comes to emotional things, startling the boy into looking up at him. He sighs heavily, and considers that it might be better if he just knocks himself unconscious via the bashing-head-into-hard-surface method.

"Look, Naruto," he says, and nearly stumbles when the kid immediately pays all his attention to him, "It's normal to feel sad, or angry, or to cry." Kakashi wonders a little at the irony of his own statements, but plunges on regardless, "It's what makes us human."

Naruto's eyes widen. "Human?" he questions.

"Um, it keeps us from… snapping and accidentally killing the people we don't want to," Kakashi tries.

"Whoa," Naruto breathes in awe.

"Whoa," the ANBU agrees, glad to have that little problem out of the way.

The boy falls silent in careful consideration, then asks, "Does Kakashi-nii get upset and run off to cry and hide too, like a lil' kid? So you won't go insane and randomly kill people?"

"Yeah," Kakashi replies at length, "_Sometimes._"

This kid will have a veritable ton of blackmail material on him when he grows up.

"But, Kakashi-nii… The orphanage caretakers don' like it when we get upset. Th'say we make a mess, and I don' wanna be a bur-burden…"

"I wouldn't," the silver-haired ninja promises, "ever say that. So if people are mean to you, it's alright to tell me."

"And you'll kick their butts?" Naruto asks hopefully.

The jounin confirms, "I'll kick their asses to the middle of next week."

The kid cheers happily, and walks around the table to plop himself in front of his surrogate older brother. "_And _you'll teach me to kick their butts too?"

Kakashi laughs, light and gentle and warm, "Sure, if you want me to."

* * *

><p>Early the next morning, when the kid is still snoring away in the spare bedroom (he'd fallen asleep during dinner, <em>again<em>) and Kakashi has just begun cracking eggs into the pan, a messenger bird lands on the windowsill and stretches out one leg, wrapped with a grey ribbon.

Summon for jounin or ANBU*, non-urgent. That still means he should be at the Hokage's office in an hour tops.

The copy-nin waves the bird away, his light-hearted mood dissipating as the little sparrow disappears into the distance. It's been nearly three weeks since he'd left the hospital, and it's amazing that he's even been put off the roster for that long. He's been expecting that summon any day now, but he still can't help but wonder how the kid will take it.

It'll be back-to-back missions for him again, and there's no telling how much longer he'll last before succumbing to the usual ANBU's fate, i.e. breaking or dying. Of course, there's always the option of resigning as well, but it's… odd to contemplate that, because he's spent practically every second of the past five years throwing himself into the corps.

_(But maybe he'll do it after all, for Naruto's sake.)_

Kakashi sighs, and figures that he'll think about it at a later date. Right now, he has a breakfast to make and a summon to answer. After setting a plate of scrambled eggs on the table for the kid and taking a few bites himself, he hastily scribbles a note to tell Naruto when he'd be back, pulls on his ANBU gear and mask, and shunshins directly into the Hokage's office.

"Ah, Hound," the Sandaime greets, "I've been expecting you."

Kakashi simply waits patiently for the Hokage to continue. Setting down his pipe, the Sandaime asks benignly, "How has your recovery been so far?"

The gash on his calf isn't completely healed yet, and even a little strained from running around the village the previous day, but the ANBU feels no need to point that out. "Fine, Hokage-sama," he answers.

"I'd have liked to give you more time to recuperate, but unfortunately I'm a little short on hands, so there's a mission for you." Saying so, Sarutobi reaches into a drawer and pulls out a scroll, handing it over to the ANBU.

The two spend a few minutes in silence as Kakashi reads the mission scroll. He then rolls if up and passes it back to the older man. "I will leave tomorrow morning and be back in a week, if that's fine, Hokage-sama."

The Hokage nods at that, and keeps the scroll back in his desk.

"I hope that you can return by then, Hound," he says, the laugh lines around his mouth deepening slightly as he smiles kindly at the teen.

Kakashi manages a short bow and a 'hai, Hokage-sama' before disappearing from the office, not leaving behind even a wisp of smoke or a single leaf.

He prays that this mission will go better than his previous one.

* * *

><p>Judging by the position of the sun in the sky, Kakashi estimates that he has a little over an hour before the kid wakes up, so he opts to walk through the village on foot instead of hopping roofs or using the shunshin like he usually would have.<p>

He might need to clear his head a little.

So he strolls through the village, drinking in the sight of the villagers going about their daily business - children playing on the sides of the streets, people rushing to work, women carrying large baskets of fresh fruits and vegetables, and ninja hurrying about, genin, chuunin and jounin alike.

This is the village he's been fighting for all his life, and never has he wanted anything else. He loves Konoha, there has never and will never be any doubt, but now he can't help but feel a tinge of resentment. The kid's carrying such a heavy burden for the _entire_ _village, _and they thank him by piling more pain on those tiny shoulders of his? It's …difficult, not to feel disappointed in these people he's devoted his life to protecting.

It's just that tiny tinge of doubt, but the disloyalty disturbs Kakashi nonetheless, so he quickly halts that train of thought there and ponders instead about what'll happen to Naruto while he's away.

He knows perfectly well that the kid can take care of himself - he's been doing it for the past couple of years already - but that's also exactly why he doesn't ever want to leave Naruto on his own again. A five-year-old is not _supposed_ to take care of himself, and especially not when Naruto's version is something more like 'suffer in silence and make sure I don't starve to death'. The latter part being replaceable with 'ramen', it's little wonder that the kid's small even for his age.

Kakashi remembers spending a week or two in the orphanage before Minato took custody of him, and it had not been a pleasant experience in any way, shape or form. He can't imagine having to live there for five years, surrounded by the harshness and cynicism of the place. There's always been that undercurrent of _me against the world _that set everyone in there apart from each other, no matter how good friends you are.

He doesn't want the kid to go through that, ever again. Naruto deserves more than that. Hell, Kakashi _owes _him more than that - Naruto would have been his brother in all but blood in another life, but he's done nothing but ignore the boy's suffering for the last five years.

Running a hand frustratedly through his gravity-defying hair, Kakashi finds himself completely at a loss as to what to do. He can't even think up an alternative; there are babysitting centres for active duty shinobi, and he could hire genins to take care of Naruto, but he doesn't know whether that'd just make matters worse than they already are, and he doesn't want to push the kid into anything.

As if that's not enough, Kakashi suddenly remembers the fact that it's not just one week he's going to have to leave the boy alone for - who knows how long the mission after this one will take, and then the next one, and the next? Tearing all of his hair out or just knocking himself unconscious are both seeming to be increasingly viable options now.

In his agitation he must have moved rather faster than he'd intended to, for soon he finds himself in front of his apartment building, the whole peaceful stroll idea shot to hell. All it had done was to give him more time to worry and panick, and that most definitely is not what he had set out to do.

Goddamnit, he's feeling horrible and guilty and so wretchedly worried, and he's not even supposed to _care! _Caring is the first step to _getting attached, _which is euphemism for _death and pain _and thus something he's been desperately avoiding. But of course, his life never does go quite according to plan, does it?

Speaking about his life veering severely off track, Kakashi pauses outside his door as he senses not one, but _two _chakra signatures in the apartment. The first one is Naruto's, of course - he's the only one with a genin-level chakra that the silver-haired ANBU registers as 'familiar' - but the second one is…

Practically banging the front door open (he somehow still managed to deactivate the traps), Kakashi stares at the green leotard-clad creature in his living room and, with barely restrained calm, says, "Gai?!"

"Kakashi, my Eternal Rival!" Gai greets with his usual exuberance and a little spinny dance, at the same time that Naruto squeals, "Kakashi-nii, you're back!"

Kakashi forgets how to speak for a long while, and even a little of how to breathe, so when he finally does reply he's kind of wheezing, "Gai, what… what did you do to Naruto?!"

Because in his living room stands not one, but _two _green leotard-clad creatures. They look about as freaky and disturbing as Mini-me and Dr Evil, and about just as similar. Kakashi silently thanks the Gods that Gai hadn't yet managed to doctrine Naruto into a bowl-cut, because if that happens, Kakashi wouldn't be able to look Minato-sensei face to face ever again, or heck, even live (die?) in the same afterlife.

Gai, however, completely ignores his rival's pained expression and pulls out another green jumpsuit with a dramatic flourish, brandishing it in Kakashi's face. "Third time's the charm!" He declares, throwing in a Nice Guy pose, complete with thumbs-up and teeth-shine.

Naruto glances at Gai and immediately imitates him, though he kind of fails at the whole teeth-shining thing. The angle that you have to position your teeth, your grin, and hence your face at in relation to your body and the sun's rays has to be carefully and accurately calculated, after all, and it involves tons of complex mathematics and fried brains - that is, unless you have Gai's natural instincts at teeth-shining.

It's a talent, really.

Kakashi holds both arms up protectively, shielding himself both from the brilliant light emitting from Gai's molars, and the horrendous sight before him. He pushes at the green outfit, attempting to convince his fellow jounin to take it back, "No, no, I don't need a jumpsuit; two of you is enough, Gai, really. Actually, one's enough too - one's _great, _in fact - so why don't you, like, get Naruto back into his nice orange jumpsuit? You don't want him stealing your title, right? Right. Now get him into ORANGE!"

Gai startles, and proceeds to marvel brazenly at his Eternal Rival. "The Flames of Youth have not burned so brightly in you for many years, Kakashi - I have never heard you speak so much at one go! You are now a changed man!"

"I am now a _traumatised _man, more like," Kakashi mumbles under his breath.

The Green Beast catches the statement easily, and thus gapes. "My Eternal Rival has utilised sarcasm! He has gained a sense of humour! The sky must be falling! The world must have run out of green leotards!"

Gai runs, screaming indistinctly, around Kakashi's apartment.

The ANBU Captain easily ignores his long-time rival, and takes the opportunity to bend down in front of the kid and ruffle his hair affectionately, and a little concernedly. "Sorry I had to go out a little this morning without telling you, kid. Was everything alright?"

"Yeap!" Naruto proclaims brightly, "I saw your paper with the funny squiggles on it, which Green-nii read to me! He came-" The boy squints at the clock and counts on his fingers for a bit. "-fif-tee-five minutes ago!"

"That's great," Kakashi comments, internally cracking up over the kid's choice of nickname for the jounin. But he's also grateful, because Gai's one of the rare few whom Kakashi _trusts_ would never treat the kid cruelly. The Green Beast has always had that streak of defending and/or helping the underdogs and victims, after all, and he's also one of the best ninjas Konoha has produced. He wouldn't let fear or anger or hatred cloud his judgment, and he'd see Uzumaki Naruto for the boy he truly is - he'd probably even see the _genius _Naruto has the potential to be.

Naruto continues babbling happily, "Green-nii's really nice! He let me try this cool green clothes thingy," he pulls on the stretchy fabric of the jumpsuit to demonstrate, "and he taught me to read your squiggles! Aaaaaand he showed me cool nin-nin tricks! Like this!" The boy strikes Nice Guy Poses #320-327 one after another, and grins proudly at the silver-haired teen.

"That's… _great_," Kakashi repeats, just a little thrown off by the fact that Naruto has categorised the Poses as ninja skills. He also makes a mental note to teach the kid how to read, since certain parts of his growth have obviously been neglected. "Speaking about your 'cool green clothes thingy', what say you change into your normal clothes and return the jump suit to Gai?"

Naruto appears to contemplate it very seriously, pulling longingly on the rubbery outfit. He eventually agrees while pouting, "Okay, then. I like orange, anyway!"

He must have cheered himself up with the thought of orange, for he reverts to his normal grin and bounces into his room - _the spare bedroom, _gosh, when had Kakashi started thinking of it as Naruto's room? - to change.

"Gai," Kakashi attempts to make the green blur stop running circles around him. Gai ignores him, still shrieking his head off about something like 'THE FLAMES OF YOUTH ARE GOING TO SET WILDFIRES! UCHIHA MADARA IS GOING TO COME BACK TO LIFE! THE WORLD IS GOING TO ENDDDDD!' Kakashi tunes him out with the ease of long practice, and confidently continues, "It's my turn to suggest a contest, right?"

That, as expected, effectively makes Gai skid to a halt and turn to his rival, declaring, "YOSH, my Eternal Rival! If I lose this challenge, I will do five thousand push-ups with Naruto sitting on my back!"

Kakashi droops a little with an expression of long suffering hidden underneath his mask. "Alright, let's go with scissors paper stone this time," he says lazily.

"How hip!" Gai cries, "You have challenged me in scissors paper stone for five times in a row! But no matter, for I shall definitely PREVAIL!"

"Scissors! Paper! Stone!"

After a tense silence, Kakashi points out calmly, "I win."

"NOOOOOO! THAT PUTS US AT A DRAW! BUT I WILL NOW DO FIVE THOUSAND PUSH-UPS!" Gai shouts.

At that moment, Naruto walks back into the room, and is quickly summoned over to help the Green Beast complete his self-imposed punishment. Fifteen minutes and a strongly vertigo'ed Naruto sitting in the corner later, Gai beams at Kakashi and shoots him a thumbs-up.

"My flames of youth will continue to burn bright, for I will win our next youthful challenge, my Eternal Rival!"

Kakashi suddenly remembers the fact that Gai has gotten a genin team - his first one - and pities the poor kids. How do they handle Gai's …for lack of a better word, _youthfulness? _Kakashi's a jounin and an ANBU Captain, and _he_ can barely deal with the Green Beast of Konoha!

Wait a second. Gai has a genin team. As in, Gai has experience with children_, and_ he's still stuck on D-rank missions with his team. Plus, he doesn't fear or hate Naruto - seems to genuinely _care _about the kid, even - and is someone Kakashi can truthfully say he trusts (not that he'll ever admit it, or that it needs to be said - they both know each other well enough to know without saying it aloud). It's also evident from their limited interaction that Naruto likes Gai as well.

He couldn't have stumbled across a more perfect solution! Of course, there's the problem of getting the two to agree to the arrangement, but he thinks it unlikely for Gai to turn down such a request, and Naruto's a really agreeable kid - too agreeable, almost, as though he's afraid he'll be abandoned the minute he does something wrong.

…which is a real possibility, now that Kakashi thinks about it. Naruto's got to be as screwed-up a child as he had been.

Kakashi quickly banishes those thoughts, and asks Gai bluntly, "Do you mind taking care of the kid for the next week or so?"

Gai immediately sobers. "You've got a mission again?" He questions, though it really can't be anything else.

"Yeah, and I don't think it's good for Naruto to go back to the orphanage." Kakashi tries to make his tone sound airy, like he doesn't quite care, but he knows from the look on Gai's face that he isn't fooled.

Gai nods seriously, once, before his whole demeanour changes back once more. "There is no need to worry, my Eternal Rival, for I will most definitely accept! It would be extremely unyouthful to ignore a comrade in need!"

Kakashi momentarily mourns the loss of Serious Gai who made an appearance for a grand total of five seconds, before curving his eye into a smile directed at his self-proclaimed rival. _Thank you, _he means, and Gai thrusts a thumbs-up in front of him in response. _No problem at all! _Gai conveys, and there isn't a doubt in his mind that Kakashi understands what he's not saying out loud.

They are Rivals - _Eternal _Rivals - after all!

Kakashi's eye crinkles up a little more at the edges, and Gai identifies that as a genuine smile, one that he hasn't seen in …how long has it been now?

As Gai moves around into all kinds of positions that constitute 'thinking' to him, Kakashi sits down in front of the swirly-eyed Naruto and then stares blankly at the kid. What exactly is he supposed to say?

"Naruto," he begins, more than a little lost.

"Y-yessshhhsh?" The kid slurs in response, still looking extremely woozy.

Kakashi contemplates for a second and figures that there really isn't any good that could come out of beating round the bush. "I've got a mission starting tomorrow, so, well. …Do you mind staying with Gai for a week or so, until I come back?"

"Green-nii?"

"Yeah, that's him."

Naruto wrinkles his little button nose up in thought. "Kakashi-nii will definitely come back, right?"

Kakashi wants to say 'of course', but he can't stand the thought of potentially lying to the kid, so he answers instead, "I'll do my best." He tries to reassure Naruto with a small smile, but the boy doesn't relax. His shoulders remain tense and hunched over, as though trying to protect himself from something, and his blue eyes are a little duller than usual and filled with trepidation. Kakashi feels his heart clench - what kind of big brother is he, if he's making the kid worry for him?

Shooting a glance at Gai to make sure he's not paying attention, Kakashi pulls Naruto into a quick hug and whispers, "Don't worry, silly; that's as close to a 'yes' as you can get."

He pulls away to find the kid staring up at him with widened eyes and undisguised surprise at the gesture. Kakashi has to look away to keep the blood from rushing to his face, and even then he feels his cheeks heating up beneath his mask.

When Naruto recovers from his shock, he answers far more chirpily than before, "Okay! Then, Kakashi-nii, you won't have to worry 'bout me either, 'cause I'll be good too!" Kakashi can practically hear the grin in the kid's voice. A small smile creeps unbidden to his lips as he watches Naruto bound over to Gai, waving the green jumpsuit around and accidentally whacking Gai in the face. (Kakashi has to stifle a chortle and a snort at that, but it comes out as a giggle and makes his rival send a weird look his way.)

Gai and Naruto soon wander over to where he's still seated at the corner of his living room and settle down around him, after which Gai begins regaling them with tales of his extremely youthful genins, much to Naruto's delight and Kakashi's eternal amusement.

There's a light breeze blowing in through the open window and the usual sounds of the bustling village float into the apartment from the streets below, though Kakashi thinks that the warmth suffused throughout his body may have more to do with the two solid, reassuring presences beside him than the sun shining on his back.

It's …_hard_ not to care, Kakashi realises, because even though they're shinobi, tools trained to kill and abandon their emotions since young, beneath it all they're _human _and nothing can ever quite change that. And as he finds himself unable to completely smother his laughter at Gai's antics and the kid's gleeful over-reactions, Kakashi doesn't know if he _can_ resist _himself_ any longer.

_(Or perhaps he just doesn't want to_ _anymore.)_

* * *

><p>*I'm making summons for jounin and ANBU the same, because otherwise if people see an ANBU summon they'll know the person is ANBU, and ANBU are supposed to keep their identities hidden even in their village right? (The squad members are close enough to disclose their identities to each other though... eheheh...)<p>

**A/N: **YAY! Long chap! /fist pump/ It's a little late, but I hope the length makes up for it! xD And Gai's entrance! Woots~

Regarding the little siblings and pairing ideas:

1. These will probably only come up quite a while - like, a couple of years (in the fic, not RL) - into the future, and I'm not sure yet whether I'm even including them at all! So, still accepting opinions/suggestions! :)

2. Little siblings: Konohamaru is currently the top contender! Moegi, Udon, Hanabi and Sora are also possible options. I might, however, adapt the overprotective-big-bro!Naru idea to apply on people who are actually the same age as him, such as Hinata? Or Sakura? I don't know, but it might work too xD

3. Pairings: As of now, the safest option is not pairing Kakashi at all, but if I do decide to pair him, he'll most likely be with Iruka! For one thing, I love KakaIru, for another, it's the most suggested pairing I got, and for _another,_ that's more or less the only Kakashi pairing I have any semblance of confidence in writing. **HOWEVER**, I don't even write kissing scenes, much less lemon, so it will only be a SIDE PAIRING for the HUMOUR and FLUFF ;)

THANK YOU again for all of you guys' support! Love y'all! *hearts*


End file.
